Reading the Mark of Athena
by april-babe16
Summary: The seven of the prophecy and all of New Rome are commanded to read The Mark of Athena by Apollo and Hermes. Sequel to Reading the Son of Neptune.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is a sequel to my other story Reading the Son of Neptune so you should probably read that if you haven't yet. I was not expecting to write this story but I kept thinking about all of the possibilities...and I couldn't stay away:) Updates are random..basically whenever I have time. It's a little bit different than my Reading the Son of Neptune.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the bold! All of the bold belongs to Rick Riordan. **

**Annabeth's POV:**

While I helped my boyfriend up after judo-flipping him I was surprised to see Apollo and Hermes hidden in the crowd over Percy's shoulder.

"What are they doing here?" I asked confusedly as she accidentely let go of Percy's hand and dropped him again.

"Ouch!" Percy gasped. "That hurt!"

"Sorry." I said as I tried to hide her smile.

"I'll get you back for that." Percy grinned as he stood up himself, then promptly stared directly at Hermes, showing him that he knew Hermes was there. Hermes obviously got the hint because he walked over, dragging Apollo with him.

"Did you miss us?" Apollo smirked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh yeah that's right, you don't remember." Hermes laughed.

"Can you explain what you're talking about?" Percy furrowed his eyebrows.

"They were there too." Apollo answered as he gestured to Piper, Jason, Leo, Hazel, and Frank. "Are you guys all sure you don't remember?"

I tried to concentrate on figuring out what they were talking about, and suddenly the memories came flooding back... Percy going on a quest, Hazel coming back from the dead, Frank's life depending on a piece of firewood, and finally,having our memories of reading books from the future taken away.

"That explains the piece of paper I found in my pocket." I said quietly to herself.

"What?" Hazel asked.

"Never mind." I said as I shook my head, but I noticed Percy seemed to understand.

"Is there a reason we are getting our memories back?" Jason asked uncomfortably aware that everyone was staring at them, _Reyna was staring at them._

"Oh yeah about that." Hermes grinned sheepishly. "You are going to read another book from the future with everyone here."

"Are you serious?" Leo raised his eyebrows. "Awesome!"

"Why?" Frank asked.

"Umm.." Apollo said awkwardly. "I might have forseen that the Greeks and the Romans aren't going to get along, and I felt like you guys needed this to understand each other."

"Who's thoughts is it showing everyone this time?" Percy huffed.

"I'm pretty sure it's Annabeth's, Leo's, Piper's, and Percy's thoughts in this one." Apollo said thoughtfully. That made me freeze, _this book showed my personal thoughts? _

"People can't read this! That's an invasion of privacy." I complained. I noticed Piper, Leo, and Percy didn't look that happy either.

"You didn't have a problem with it when it was only my thoughts being read." Percy pointed out.

"Oh shut up." I said as I tried not to smile.

"Well, here's the book." Hermes said as he took something out of his pocket and handed it to Reyna. "You're the praetor, you could control how this works."

"Have fun! We're leaving now!" Apollo laughed as him and Hermes disappeared in a flash of light.

"This is NOT happening." Reyna muttered. "This is a dream."

"Trust me it's not." Percy sighed as he took the book. "I'll read first."

As everyone sat down randomly in the grass most people couldn't help chatting with their friends about the strange situation, while Octavian loudly complained that the Romans were letting their guard down.

**A/N: If you haven't read my Reading the Son of Neptune story you should probably read that first. This wasn't very well written, but I couldn't figure out a way to get this plot to work. I'm doing the question of the chapter again, I will review a story of the person who guesses the question first and I will dedicate the chapter to them. You have to have an account to win. Good luck! Question of the Chapter: What did Bacchus call Jason?**


	2. Annabeth I

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to monkeyjoe. This author was the first one to correctly answer John Green for the last question. As a prize, I dedicated the chapter to monkeyjoe and reviewed one of their stories. Remember to answer the question if you want a shot in winning. And this story is already getting threats, so if you want me to send you the chapters just in case this is deleted then send me your e-mail. If you don't want to give me your e-mail then if this is deleted you have no way of reading it. If you don't have an account on this website then you should probably just make one. It take less than five minutes.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any of the bold. It all belongs to Rick Riordan.**

**Nobody's POV**

**"Annabeth I," ** Percy read.

"Of course it starts with my private thoughts." Annabeth huffed.

"If I were you I would get used to it." Percy advised in a teasing tone. Annabeth laughed and shoved him causing Percy to laugh with her. All of the Romans stared at him strangely as if they couldn't imagine Percy having a normal life.

**Until she met the exploding statue, Annabeth thought she was prepared for anything.**

"Terminus?" Reyna questioned.

"Yep." Annabeth sighed.

**She'd paced the deck of thier flying warship, the **_**Argo II, **_**checking and double-checking the ballistae to make sure they were locked down. She confirmed that the white "We come in peace" flag was flying from the mast. She reviewed the plan with the rest of the crew –– and the backup plan, and the backup plan for the backup plan.**

"That's a lot of plans." One of the Romans said sounding impressed.

"Athena always has a plan." Annabeth said proudly. A couple of the Romans murmered to each other uncomfortably. After all, Athena wasn't exactly supposed to have kids and she was speaking like she was used to people listening to her and following her lead. Percy smiled at her and rolled his eyes. It looked like she wasn't going to drop that saying anytime soon.

**Most important, she pulled aside their war-crazed chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge, and encouraged him to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships. The last thing they needed as they flew a magical Greek trireme into a potentially hostile Roman camp was a middle-aged satyr in gym clothes waving a club and yelling "Die!"**

"Why would he be saying "Die"?" Dakota asked.

"He tends to say that a lot." Leo shrugged.

"All the time." Piper agreed.

"Every minute of every day." Jason said gravely.

**Everything seemed to be in order. Even that mysterious chill she'd been feeling since the ship launched had dissipated, at least for now.**

Percy looked at Annabeth worriedly, "What mysterious chill?"

"It's nothing." Annabeth said. "Forget it." Percy frowned but nodded. He knew Annabeth well enough to know when she wasn't going to say anything.

**The warship descended through the clouds, but Annabeth couldn't stop second-guessing herself. What if this was a bad idea? What if the Romans panicked and attacked them on sight? **

"Percy wouldn't let us." Reyna explained. "He made sure we at least listened to what you had to say."

"Thanks for that." Leo sighed. "I really didn't want my ship to get blown out of the sky."

**The **_**Argo II **_**definitely did not look friendly. Two hundred feet long, with a bronze-plated hull, mounted repeating crossbows for and aft, a flaming metal dragon for a figurehead, and two rotating ballistae amidships that could fire explosive bolts powerful enough to blast through concrete...well, it wasn't the most appropriate ride for a meet-and-greet with the neighbors.**

This made everyone laugh as Annabeth blushed.

"That's very true." Percy agreed.

**Annabeth had tried to give the Romans a heads-up. She'd asked Leo to send one of his special inventions––a holographic scrool––to alert their friends inside the camp. Hopefully the message had gotten through. Leo had wanted to paint a giant message on the bottom of the hull––WASSUP? with a smiley face––but Annabeth vetoed the idea. She wasn't sure the Romans had a sense of humor. **

"Hey!" One of the Romans shouted. "We do have a sense of humor."

"I wasn't sure if you would see the humor in Leo's idea." Annabeth explained further. "I thought that you might have assumed that we were messing with you guys and I didn't want to take that chance."

"That makes sense." Reyna nodded. "Although you might have wanted to phrase your thoughts differently."

"It's not like I can control my thoughts." Annabeth grumbled.

"Hey Wise Girl, get used to it." Percy laughed.

"It's going to take some time." Annabeth grinned.

**Too late to turn back now.**

**The clouds broke around their hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below them. Annabeth gripped one of the bronze shields that lined the starboard rail. **

**Her three crewmates took their places.**

**On the stern quarterdeck, Leo rushed arounds like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers. Most helmsmen would've been satisfied with a pilot's wheel or a tiller. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.**

"Dude, that's awesome!" Percy grinned.

"I know, isn't it?" Leo smiled. "Nobody else realizes how amazing it is!"

"We know it's cool." Jason told Leo sincerely.

"There's just more important things we need to focus on." Piper agreed.

**Piper paced back and forth between the mainmast and the ballistae, practicing her lines. **

**"Lower your weapons," She murmured. "We just want to talk."**

"Thanks gods you didn't need to use charmspeak." Jason sighed.

"Why?" Piper asked.

"I wouldn't want you to get hurt if the Romans realized what you were doing." Jason blushed. Reyna, who just seemed to realize that Piper and Jason were dating, looked back and forth between them as if searching for an answer to a math problem that had no solution.

"I could handle myself." Piper rolled her eyes, even though on the inside she felt like a caterpillar was crawling around in her stomach at the thought of Jason caring what happened to her.

"I know you can." Jason said honestly. "I was just worried." Piper smiled at him and grabbed his hand, knowing that he wasn't calling her weak.

**Her charmspeak was so powerful, the words flowed over Annabeth, filling her with the desire to drop her dagger and have a nice long chat.**

"Wait, what's charmspeak?" One of the Romans asked.

"Some really powerful daughters of Aphrodite have the power to convince others to do what they want." Piper explained. "Some people use it for their own selfish needs, but I hate to use it and I only use it if it's necessary."

"So how is it determined who gets blessed with charmspeaking?" Reyna asked.

"Well, you obviously have to be a daughter of Aphrodite," Piper answered. "but it just depends on who Aphrodite chooses to bless."

"You also have to be really beautiful." Jason smiled at Piper, making Piper blush and Reyna die on the inside as she thought about the fact that Jason obviously didn't have any romantic feeling for her whatsoever. Annabeth looked at Reyna thoughtfully, she obviously figured out that Reyna had feelings for Jason, but she was trying to figure out how deep those feelings ran.

**For a child of Aphrodite, Piper tried hare to play down her beauty. Today she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn-out sneakers, and a white tank top with pink Hello Kitty designs. (Maybe as a joke, though Annabeth could never be sure with Piper.)**

"Yeah, I was wondering about that." One of the Romans whispered to her friend.

**Her choppy brown hair was braided down the right side with an eagle's feather.**

**Then there was Piper's boyfriend––Jason. **

Reyna shut her eyes tightly as the thing she was fearing the most was confirmed. It seemed like Venus really hated her recently. Annabeth looked at her sympathetically, she knew how it felt to watch the guy you liked like someone else. After all, she had to go on a quest with Rachel when Percy was still sorting out all of his feelings.

**He stood at the bow on the raised crossbrow platform, where the Romans could easily spot him. His knuckles were white on the hilt of his golden sword. Otherwise he looked calm for a guy who was making himself a target. Over his jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, he'd donned a toga and a purple cloak––symbols of his old rank of praetor. With his wind-ruffled blonde hair and his icy blue eyes, he looked ruggedly handsome and in control––just like a son of Jupiter should. He'd grown up at Camp Jupiter, so hopefully his familiar face would make the Romans hesitant to blow the ship out of the sky.**

"If we thought that he was a traitor we still would've had to blow the ship out of the sky." One of the peope who was sitting near Octavian said.

"Are you serious?" Piper asked.

"Duty is very important." He shrugged. "We have to watch out for our own."

**Annabeth tried to hide it, but she still didn't completely trust the guy. He acted too perfect––always following the rules, always doing the honorable thing. He even **_**looked **_**too perfect. In the back of her mind, she had a nagging thought: What if this is a trick and he betrays us? What if we sail into Camp Jupiter, and he says, **_**Hey Romans? Check out these prisoners and this cool ship I brought you? **_

"Do you seriously think that I would do that?" Jason said looking hurt. "Piper and Leo are my best friends and Camp Half-Blood has been my home for the last eight months; I wouldn't just give you guys up."

Annabeth looked ashamed of herself. "I know it's just that I was worried about Percy and I was paranoid about everything. I knew that you missed Camp Jupiter so I was thinking about every single thing that could go wrong."

Jason looked down. "It's alright..but next time just know that I'm not a traitor."

"Annabeth," Percy said as he nudged her. "Hey, you know that I would never forget you right?"

"_I _know that, but the book version of me doesn't." Annabeth sighed not feeling comfortable that everyone could hear their conversation. "Let's just keep reading, okay?" Percy nodded and started the next paragraph.

**Annabeth doubted that would happen. Still, she couldn't look at him without getting a bitter taste in her mouth. He'd been part of Hera's forced "exchange program" to introduce the two camps. Her Most Annoying Majesty, Queen of Olympus, had convinced the other gods that their two sets of children––Roman and Greek––had to combine forces to save the world from the evil goddess Gaea, who was awakening from the earth, and her horrible children the giants.**

**Without warning, Hera had plucked up Percy Jackson, Annabeth's boyfriend, wiped his memory, and sent him to the Roman camp. In exchange, the Greeks had gotten Jason. None of that was Jason's fault; but every time Annabeth saw him, she remembered how much she missed Percy.**

Annabeth winced, "That was a lot."

"I missed you just as much." Percy promised. The people near them smiled as they thought about how much Annabeth and Percy really deserved, and needed each other.

**Percy...who was somewhere below them right now.**

_**Oh, gods. **_** Panic welled up inside her. She forced it down. She couldn't afford to get overwhelmed.**

_**I'm a child of Athena, **_**she told herself. **_**I have to stick to my plan and not get distracted.**_

**She felt it again–that familiar shiver, as if a psychotic snowman had crept up behind her and was breathing down her neck. She turned, but no one was there.**

Percy wrapped his arm around Annabeth's waist and pulled her close. The quick act wasn't noticable, but it showed Annabeth that Percy was there for her, and was always willing to listen.

**Must be her nerves. Even in a world of gods and monsters, Annabeth couldn't believe a new warship would be haunted. The **_**Argo II **_**was well protected. The Celestial bronze shields along the rail were enchanted to ward off monsters, and their onboard satyr, Coach Hedge, would have sniffed out any intruders.**

**Annabeth wished she could pray to her mother for guidance, but that wasn't possible now. Not after last month, when she'd had that horrible encounter with her mom and gotten the worst present of her life...**

"What is that about?" Percy whispered into Annabeth's ear, making her shiver.

"I can't explain it..it will probably be explained in the book, and if it doesn't, then I will tell you after. Okay?" Annabeth sighed.

"Deal." Percy agreed.

**The cold pressed closer. She thought she heard a faint voice in the wind, laughing. Every muscle in her body tensed. Something was about to go terribly wrong.**

**She almost ordered Leo to reverse course. Then, in the valley below, horns sounded. The Romans had spotted them. **

"It's too late to turn back now." Piper smiled wryly as she thought about how similar her thoughts could be to Annabeth's sometimes.

**Annabeth thought she knew what to expect. Jason had described Camp Jupiter to her in great detail. Still, she had trouble believing her eyes. Ringed by the Oakland Hills, the valley was at least twice the size of Camp Half-Blood.**

"Camp Half-Blood is cozy." Percy smiled sadly as he thought about how much he missed his home.

"You'll see it soon." Annabeth promised.

**A small river snaked around one side and curled toward the center like a capital letter G, emptying into a sparkling blue lake. **

**Directly below the ship, nestled at the edge of the lake, the city of New Rome gleamed in the sunlight. She recognized landmarks Jason had tolder her about––the hippodrome, the coliseum, the temples and parks, the neighborhood of Seven Hills with its winding streets, colorful villas, and flowering gardens.**

**She saw evidence of the Romans' recent battle with an army of monsters. The dome was cracked open on a building she guessed was the Senate House. The forum's broad plaza was pitted with craters. Some fountains and statues were in ruins.**

"A lot of them." Reyna sighed as she looked at the mess that surrounded her.

**Dozens of kids in togas were streaming out of the Senate House to get a better view of the **_**Argo II. **_**More Romans emerged from the shops and cafes, gawking and pointing as the ship descended. **

**About half a mile to the west, where the horns were blowing, a Roman fort stood on a hill. It looked just like the illustrations Annabeth had seen in military history books––with a defenseive trench lined with spikes, high walls, and watchtowers armed with scorpion ballistae. Inside, perfect rows of white barracks lined the main road––the Via Principalis.**

**A column of demigods emerged from the gates, their armor and spears glinting as they hurried toward the city. In the midst of their ranks was an actual war elephant.**

"That's Hannibal." Hazel smiled as she looked over at the war elephant. "She's a sweety."

**Annabeth wanted to land the **_**Argo II **_**before those troops arrived, but the ground was still several hundered feet below. She scanned the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of Percy.**

**Then something behind her went BOOM!**

**The explosion almost knocked her overboard. She whirled and found herself eye to eye with an angry statue.**

"So that's the exploding statue that was mentioned at the beginning of the chapter." Percy realized.

**"Unacceptable!"he shrieked.**

**Apparently he had exploded into existence, right there on the deck. Sulfurous yellow smoke rolled off his shoulders. Cinders popped around his curly hair. From the waist down, he was nothing but a square marble pedastal. From the waist up, he was a muscular human figure in a carved toga.**

**"I will **_**not **_**have weapons inside the Pomerian Line!" he announced in a fussy teacher voice. "I **_**certainly **_**will not have Greeks!"**

"There's nothing wrong with Greeks." Piper frowned.

**Jason shot Annabeth a look that said, **_**I've got this. **_

**"Terminus," he said. "It's me. Jason Grace."**

**"Oh, I remember **_**you, **_**Jason!" Terminus grumbled. "I thought you had better sense than to consort with the enemies of Rome!"**

"That didn't exactly go as expected." Jason said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Does anything ever go as expected?" Piper smiled.

"It doesn't seem like it." Jason laughed.

**"But they're not enemies––"**

**"That's right," Piper jumped in. "We just want to talk. If we could––"**

**"Ha!" snapped the statue. "Don't try that charmspeak on **_**me, **_**young lady. And put down that dagger before I slap it out of your hands!"**

"But he doesn't have hands." One of the Romans said confusedly, then looked even more confused when every single person gasped and stared at him for about a minute.

"Don't _ever _bring that up." One of the people near him said. "One time I said that and he made me measure every single blade of grass to make sure they were the same."

"He did that to me too!" Somebody else shouted.

"I'm pretty sure that was his favorite punishment." Jason blushed. "I've gotten that quite a few times." Reyna smiled as she thought about the little reasons Jason would get into trouble.

**Piper glanced at her bronze dagger, which she'd apparently forgotten she was holding. **

**"Um...okay. But how would you slap it? You don't have any arms."**

"We warned you." Dakota shook his head.

"Actually, you didn't." Piper corrected him.

**"Impertinence!" There was a sharp **_**POP **_**and a flash of yellow. Piper yelped and dropped the dagger, which was now smoking and sparking.**

**"Lucky for you I've just been through a battle," Terminus announced. "If I were at full strength, I would've blasted this flying montrosity out of the sky already!"**

"I wouldn't let him." Leo said as he glared at the book.

**"Hold up." Leo stepped forward, wagging his Wii controller. "Did you just call my ship a montrosity? I **_**know **_**you didn't do that."**

**The idea that Leo might attack the statue with his gaming device was enough to snap Annabeth out of her shock.**

"That's a funny image." Percy laughed.

"Yeah, it is a little bit funny." Annabeth admitted.

**"Let's all calm down." She raised her hands to show she had no weapons. "I take it you're Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jason told me you protect the city of New Rome, right? I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of––"**

**"Oh, I know who you are!" The statue glared at her with its blank white eyes. "A child of **_**Athena, **_**Minerva's Greek form. Scandalous! You Greeks have no sense of decency. We Romans know the proper place for that goddess."**

"Hold on a second, what's wrong with Athena?" Annabeth asked.

"It's just that.." A nervous Roman explained after seeing Annabeth's dangerous face. "Athena's supposed to be a maiden goddess."

"Is that what the big deal is?" Annabeth blushed. "Athena _is _a maiden goddess still."

"But if she has kids-"

"You don't want to know how that works." Percy warned him.

**Annabeth clenched her jaw. This statue wasn't making it easy to be diplomatic. "What exactly do you mean, **_**that **_**goddess? And what's so scandalous about––"**

**"Right!" Jason interrupted. "Anyway, Terminus, we're here on a mission of peace. We'd love permission to land so we can––"**

**"Impossible!" The god squeaked. "Lay down your weapons and surrender! Leave my city immediately!"**

"Wait, should they surrender, or leave?" Somebody asked causing Leo to laugh.

**"Which is it?" Leo asked. "Surrender, or leave?"**

"Oh that's why you laughed." The Roman smiled. "That is pretty funny."

**"Both!" Terminus said. "Surrender, then leave. I am slapping your face for asking such a stupid question, you ridiculous boy! Do you feel that?"**

**"Wow." Leo studied Terminus with professional interest. "You're wound up pretty tight. You got any gears in there that need loosening? I could take a look."**

"I don't think that's a good idea." Percy laughed. "but it is funny."

**He exchanged the Wii controller for a screwdriver from his magic tool belt and trapped the statue's pedestal. **

**"Stop that!" Terminus insisted. Another small explosion made Leo drop his screwdriver.**

**"Weapons are **_**not **_**allowed on Roman soil inside the Pomerian Line."**

**"The what?" Piper asked.**

"The city limits." Reyna answered.

**"City limits," Jason translated.**

Reyna tried to hide her smile; she succeeded, but barely.

**"And this entire ship is a weapon!" Terminus said. "You **_**cannot **_**land!"**

**Down in the valley, the legion reinforcements were halfway to the city. The crowd in the forum was over a hundred strong now. Annabeth scanned the faces and...oh, gods. She saw him. **

Annabeth closed her eyes and smiled as she thought about how amazing that feeling of knowing he was safe was.

**He was walking toward the ship with his arms around two other kids like they were best buddies––a stout boy with a black buzz cut, and a girl wearing a Roman cavalry helmet. Percy looked so at ease, so happy. He wore a purple cape, just like Jason's––the mark of a praetor. **

**Annabeth's heart did a gymnastics routine.**

"That is _so _sweet!" Some of the girl squealed. "You guys are my new OTP!"

"What's OTP?" Annabeth asked.

"It means one true pairing." One of the squealers answered. "It basically means I totally love yours and Percy's relationship."

"Um, thanks I guess." Annabeth and Percy said as they looked at the girls weirdly.

"Your welcome." She smiled back brightly.

**"Leo, stop the ship," she ordered.**

**"What?"**

**"You heard me. Keep us right where we are."**

**Leo pulled out his controller and yanked it upward. All ninety oars froze in place. The ship stopped sinking.**

**"Terminus," Annabeth said, "there's no rule against hovering over new Rome, is there?"**

"Not technically." Reyna said, getting an idea of where Annabeth was going.

**The statue frowned. "Well, no..."**

**"We can keep the ship aloft," Annabeth said. "We'll use a rope ladder to reach the forum. That way, the ship won't be on Roman soil. Not technically."**

**The statue seemed to ponder this. Annabeth wondered if he was scratching his chin with his imaginary hands.**

**"I like technicalities," he admitted. "Still..."**

**"All our weapons will stay aboard the ship," Annabeth promised. "I assume the Romans––even those reinforcements marching toward us––will also have to honor your rules inside the Pomerian Line if you tell them to?"**

"Of course." Reyna answered automatically.

**"Of course!" Terminus said. "Do I look like I tolerate rule breakers?"**

**"Uh, Annabeth..." Leo said. "You sure this is a good idea?"**

**She closed her fists to keep them from shaking. That cold feeling was still there. It floated just behind her, and now that Terminus was no longer shouting and causing explosions, she thought she could hear the presence laughing, as if it was delighted by the bad choices she was making.**

**But Percy was down there...he was so close. She **_**had **_**to reach him.**

Percy beamed and kissed Annabeth in front of everyone, not even caring that everyone was watching, he had a lot of time away from his girlfriend to make up.

**"It'll be fine," she said. "No one will be armed. We can talk in peace. Terminus will make sure each side obeys the rules." She looked at the marble statue. "Do we have an agreement?:**

**Termins sniffed. " I suppose. For now. You may climb down your ladder to New Rome, daughter of Athena. Please try not to destroy my town."**

"Who's next?" Percy asked.

"I'll read next." Dakota shrugged as he accepted the book.

**Question of the Chapter: What type of sea creature did Frank turn into when him and Percy got trapped in a tank in an aquarium?**


	3. Annabeth II

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to SerenePanic! Congratulations on being the first person to answer the question of the chapter. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to upload new chapters very often, but I DO have a life and my actual social life and education has to come before this story...even if I wish that I could be constantly working on this story. Unfortunately, I'm a freshman, which means that I have tons of homework every single day. At my school we call freshman year "The Year of Pain." So, I am writing with any free time I have, but it's still not enough.  
**

**Disclaimer: All of the bold and the characters belong to Rick Riordan.**

**"Annabeth II," **Dakota read.

**A sea of hastily assembled demigods parted for Annabeth as she walked through the forum. Some looked tense, some nervous. Some were bandaged from their recent battle with the giants, but no one was armed. No one attacked.**

"Terminus wouldn't let us have our weapons," Ocatavian rolled his eyes. "How do you expect us to attack?"

Annabeth glared at him. "I wasn't expecting you to attack, I was observing what I saw."

Octavian obviously realized that Annabeth was a dangerous person because he backed off before Annabeth could get really angry.

**Entire families had gathered to see the newcomers. Annabeth saw couples with babies, toddlers clinging to their parents' legs, even some elderly folks in a combination of Roman robes and modern clothes. Were all of them demigods? Annabeth suspected so, though she'd never seen a place like this. At Camp Half-Blood, most demigods were teens. If they survived long enough to graduate from high school, they either stayed on as counselors or left to start lives as best they could in the mortal world. Here, it was an entire multigenerational community.**

"It was very surprising." Annabeth admitted.

"I was surprised too." Piper agreed.

**At the far end of the crowd, Annabeth spotted Tyson the Cyclops and Percy's hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary––who had been the first scouting party from Camp Half-Blood to reach Camp Jupiter. They looked to be in good spirits. Tyson waved and grinned. He was wearing an SPQR banner like a giant bib.**

**Some part of Annabeth's mind registered how beautiful the city was––the smells from the bakeries, the gurgling fountains, the flowers blooming in the gardens. And the architecture...gods, the architecture––gilded marble columns, dazzling mosaics, monumental arches, and terraced villas.**

"It really is beautiful." Piper said as she looked around her. Reyna smiled at her, although Annabeth noted the smile looked at bit forced.

**In front of her, the demigods made way for a girl in full Roman armor and a purple cape. Dark hair tumbled across her shoulders. Her eyes were as black as obsidian.**

_**Reyna.**_

Reyna stared at Annabeth strangely. "How did you know who I was?"

"Jason described you." Annabeth answered. Reyna looked a bit pleased that Jason described her well enough for Annabeth to immedietely recognize who she was.

**Jason had described her well. Even without that, Annabeth would have singled her out as the leader. Medals decorated her armor. She carried herself with such confidence the other demigods backed away and averted their gaze.**

"I'll take that as a compliment." Reyna said.

"It's a good thing." Annabeth assured her.

**Annabeth recognized something else in her face, too––in the hard set of her mouth and the deliberate way she raised her chin like she was ready to accept any challenge. Reyna was forcing a look of courage, while holding back a mixture of hopefulness and worry and fear that she couldn't show in public.**

As everyone looked at Reyna she looked down, not wanting to show them the exact face they were looking for.

**Annabeth knew that expression. She saw it every time she looked in a mirror.**

"Annabeth." Percy sighed.

"What?"

"You don't _always _have to be strong." He pointed out.

"i could say the same to you." She replied, and he shut his mouth as he realized she had a point.

**The two girls considered each other. Annabeth's friends fanned out on either side. The Romans murmured Jason's name, staring at him in awe.**

**Then someone else appeared from the crowd, and Annabeth's vision tunneled.**

Annabeth leaned into Percy and smiled as she remembered the emotions that were rolling through her like a tornado.

**Percy smiled at her––that sarcastic, troublemaker smile that had annoyed her for years but eventually had become endearing. His sea-green eyes were as gorgeous as she remembered. His dark hair was swept to one side, like he'd just come from a walk on the beach. He looked even better than he had six months ago––tanner and taller, leaner and more muscular.**

"He _is _hot." One of the Romans nodded.

"Definitely." Her friend agreed.

"Hey, he has a boyfriend." Annabeth yelled as Percy sat next to her looking uncomfortable, but still smug at the fact that Annabeth thought he was hot.

"Get that smug look of your face." Annabeth said as she poked him on his sides.

**Annabeth was too stunned to move. She felt that if she got any closer to him, all the molecules in her body might combust. She'd secretly had a crush on him since they were twelve years old. **

"You had a crush on me for that long?" Percy asked. Annabeth nodded through a fiery red blush. "Wow, that's impressive."

"How long did you like me for?" Annabeth asked.

"I probably liked you somewhere around the first quest, but I didn't really realize it until you were kidnapped." Percy said thoughtfully. Annabeth nodded in understanding.

**Last summer, she'd fallen for him hard. They'd been a happy couple for four months––and then he'd disappeared.**

"Oh my gods!" Somebody squealed. "I still can't get over how cute you guys are!"

"Well hurry up and try! My ears can't take much more of your squealing." Somebody grumbled.

**During their seperation, something had happened to Annabeth's felling. They'd grown painfully intense––like she'd been forced to withdraw from a life-saving medication. Now she wasn't sure which was more excruciating––living with that horrible absence, or being with him again.**

"Why would that be bad?" Percy frowned.

"I wasn't able to actually be with you. I was just watching without being able to touch you." Annabeth explained.

"Oh." Percy blushed. "That's how I felt."

**The praetor Reyna straightened. With apparent reluctance, she turned toward Jason.**

**"Jason Grace, my former colleague..." She spoke the word **_**colleague **_**like it was a dangerous thing. "I welcome you home. And these, your friends––"**

**Annabeth didn't mean to, but she surged forward. Percy rushed toward her at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some reached for their swords that weren't there.**

"Just by looking at you guys, anyone can tell you love each other." Piper pointed out.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"For example, the fact that you guys just couldn't even wait any longer before running into each other's arms, it just shows how much you guys care for each other." Piper explained happily. "It's super romantic."

"You know Piper," Percy sighed. "It's times like these where it's obvious that you're a daughter of Aphrodite."

**Percy threw his arms around her. They kissed, and for a moment nothing else mattered. An asteroid could have hit the planet and wiped out all life, and Annabeth wouldn't have cared. **

Annabeth closed her eyes blissfully, as she used all of her willpower to resist the urge to kiss him again.

**Percy smelled of ocean air. His lips were salty.**

"Ooh, interesting." One of the Venus girls smirked. Percy fidgeted awkwardly and Annabeth glared at her until the smile was wiped off her face.

_**Seaweed Brain, **_**she thought giddily.**

"Seaweed Brain?" Reyna asked.

"It's my nickname for him." Annabeth answered.

**Percy pulled away and studied her face.**

**"Gods, I never thought––"**

**Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. **

"I don't think _any _of us were expecting that!" Leo laughed.

"I know I wasn't." Jason agreed.

**He slammed into stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, "Hold! Stand down!"**

Annabeth looked at Reyna carefully, not knowing why she didn't let the Romans stop her. Reyna avoided everyone's questioning looks as she sunk into her own thoughts. _I knew how you were feeling, _she thought, _I knew how mad you were, how you just missed him so much._

**Annabeth put her knee on Percy's chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She didn't care what the Romans thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in her chest––a tumor of worry and bitterness that she'd been carrying around since last autumn.**

**"If you ever leave me again," she said, her eyes stinging, "I swear to all the gods––"**

Percy tried not to laugh but he couldn't help it.

"What's so funny?" Annabeth frowned.

"It's just that..it was so _Annabeth _of you to judo-flip me after seeing me for the first time after six months."

Annabeth looked thoughtful. "I guess that's true."

**Percy had the nerve to laugh. Suddenly the lump of heated emotions melted inside Annabeth.**

**"Consider me warned," Percy said. "I missed you, too."**

"A lot." Percy added.

**Annabeth rose and helped him to his feet. **

"The rest of the book is from the future." A young girl sitting somewhere far from the book called out.

"You're right." Reyna agreed. Everyone sat there processing how weird it was to be reading about stuff that didn't even happen yet. Except for Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Piper, and Leo, who already read about the future.

**She wanted to kiss him again **_**so **_**badly, but she managed to restrain herself. **

"I wanted to kiss you too." Percy smiled. "I _still _want to kiss you."

Annabeth kissed him on the cheek. "That will have to be enough until we have some privacy. I don't like kissing in front of a bunch of people I don't know."

"I guess that's fair." Percy smiled goofily at the thought of getting to kiss her again.

**Jason cleared his throat. "So, yeah...It's good to be back."**

**He introduced Reyna to Piper, who looked a little miffed that she hadn't gotten to say the lines she'd been practicing, then to Leo, who grinned and flashed a peace sign.**

"Only you." Piper sighed. Leo grinned in response.

**"And this is Annabeth," Jason said. "Uh, normally she doesn't judo-flip people."**

**Reyna's eyes sparkled. "You sure you're not a Roman, Annabeth? Or an Amazon?"**

"I'm positive." Annabeth grinned, knowing now that Reyna wasn't insulting her.

**Annabeth didn't know if that was a compliment, but she held out her hand. "I only attack my boyfriend like that," she promised. "Pleased to meet you."**

**Reyna clasped her hand firmly. "It seems we have a lot to discuss. Centurions!"**

**A few of the Roman campers hustled forward––apparently the senior officers. Two kids appeared at Percy's side, the same ones Annabeth had seen him chumming around with earlier. The burly Asian guy with the buzz cut was about fifteen. He was cute in a sort of oversized-cuddly-panda-bear way. The girl was younger, maybe thirteen, with amber eyes and chocolate skin and long curly hair. Her cavalry helmet was tucked under her arm.**

"Frank and Hazel." Annabeth smiled. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"

"It's been a while." Hazel sighed dramatically.

"Since the last time we read books from the future." Frank continued.

**Annabeth could tell from their body language that they felt close to Percy. They stood next to him protectively, like they'd already shared many adventures. She fought down a twinge of jealousy. Was it possible Percy and this girl...**

Hazel and Percy looked disgusted.

"That would be like dating my sister." Percy grimaced. "Annabeth, you need to stop being jealous. It brings out your weirdest thoughts."

"I'm not jealous!" Annabth blushed.

"Sure..." Percy rolled his eyes.

"That's something that should never be mentioned again." Hazel shivered.

**no. The chemistry between the three of them wasn't like that. Annabeth had spent her whole life learning to read people. It was a survival skill. If she had to guess, she'd say the big Asian guy was the girl's boyfriend, though she suspected they hadn't been together long.**

"Wow, that's impressive." Reyna nodded. "You could tell all that just by looking at them?"

Annabeth nodded. "Like the book said, I've spent my whole life learning to read people."

**There was one thing she didn't understand: what was the girl staring at? She kept frowning in Piper and Leo's directon, like she recognized one of them and the memory was painful.**

Hazel glanced at Leo, knowing that's who she was frowning at in the book. She just couldn't stop thinking about the similarities between him and Sammy, and it wasn't just their looks.

**Meanwhile, Reyna was giving orders to her officers. "...tell the legion to stand down. Dakota, alert the spirits in the kitchen. Tell them to prepare a welcome feast. And Octavian––"**

**"You're letting these intruders into the **_**camp**_**?" A tall guy with stringy blone hair elbowed his way forward. "Reyna, the security risks––"**

"I don't even think he realizes how annoying he is." Percy whispered to Annabeth, who tried to stifle a laugh.

**"We're not taking them to the camp, Octavian." Reyna flashed him a stern look. "We'll eat here in the forum."**

**"Oh, **_**much **_**better," Octavian grumbled. He seemed to be the only one who didn't defer to Reyna as his superior, despite the fact that he was scrawny and pale and for some readon had three teddy bears hanging from his belt. "You want us to relax in the shadow of their warship."**

"At least you won't get sunburned." Somebody yelled making everybody laugh except Octavian, who just turned red.

**"These are our guests." Reyna clipped off every word. "We will welcome them, and we will talk to them. As augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing Jason back to us safely."**

**"Good idea," Percy put in. "Go burn you teddy bears, Octavian."**

Octavian glared at him.

**Reyna looked like she was trying not to smile. "You have my orders. Go."**

Jason looked at Reyna carefully. Percy seemed to be making her smile a lot...did she like him?

**The officers dispersed. Octavian shot Percy a look of absolute loathing. Then he gave Annabeth a suspicious once-over and stalked away.**

**Percy slipped his hand into Annabeth's. "Don't worry about Octavian," he said. "Most of the Romans are good people––like Frank and Hazel her, and Reyna. We'll be fine."**

**Annabeth felt as if someone had draped a cold washcloth across her neck. She heard that whispering laughter again, as if the presence had followed her from the ship.**

"That's not a good sign." Piper sighed. "I hope nothing goes wrong."

**She looked up at the **_**Argo II. **_**Its massive bronze hull glittered in the sunlight. Part of her wanted to kidnap Percy right now, climb on board, and get out of here while they still could.**

"I thought you were supposed to be the one with the good plans." Percy said with amusement lacing his words.

"Shut up." Annabeth smiled as she shoved him.

**She couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. And there was no way she would ever risk losing Percy again.**

**"We'll be fine," she repeated, trying to believe it.**

**"Excellent," Reyna said. She turned to Jason, and Annabeth thought there was a hungry sort of gleam in her eyes. "Let's talk, and we can have a proper reunion."**

"I want to read next." Annabeth said as she walked over to Frank and accepted the book. She couldn't wait until the book was ready from somebody else's point of view, but until then she might as well make it slightly better by reading it herself.

**Question of the Chapter: In Percy's dream of Nico in a giant jar, how many pomegranate seeds are in Nico's hand?**


	4. Annabeth III

**A/N: I'm so disappointed! Only about four people got his question right. Technically, there weren't any seeds in Nico's hand. They were all around his feet. The first person to answer correctly was Dreamcatcher511. As a reward, I reviewed one of their stories. Remember that if you want me to e-mail you the chapters if this story is deleted, then P.M. me your e-mail. Sorry I haven't been able to update frequently at all, but I have play practice every day until nine. Then when I get home I have to do homework. To the people who are worried that I'm quitting this story: Don't worry! I won't ever quit this story. I honestly enjoy writing it. I enjoy making my readers happy even more. I wish I could write every second of every day, but I can't.**

**Disclaimer: All of the bold and the characters belong to Rick Riordan.**

**"Annabeth III," **Annabeth read.

**Annabeth wished she had an appetite, because the Romans knew how to eat.**

"Yeah we do!" One of the Romans yelled proudly.

**Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits ––**_**aurae––**_**swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts––Lares–– in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast, satyrs (no, **_**fauns, **_**Annabeth thought) **

"It's hard to get used to." Piper said.

"Yeah it is." Percy agreed.

**trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O'Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.**

**The whole scene was so familiar yet so completely alien that it gave Annabeth vertigo.**

**All she wanted to do was be with Percy––preferably alone. **

"That sounds similar." Percy grinned. "I'm pretty sure that's how I'm feeling."

Annabeth smiled. She could get used to the cheesy side of Percy.

**She knew she would have to wait. If their quest was going to succeed, they needed these Romans, which meant getting to know them and building some goodwill.**

**Reyna and a few of her officers (including the blond kid Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods) sat with Annabeth and her crew. **

"That sounds fun." Percy said sarcastically. "The only thing that could make it better would be if Gaea showed up."

Octavian turned red, but didn't dare say anything with the look Reyna was giving him.

**Percy joined them with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel.**

**As a tornado of food platters settled onto the table, Percy leaned over and whispered, "I want to show you around New Rome. Just you and me. The place is incredible."**

**Annabeth should've felt thrilled. **_**Just you and me **_**was exactly what she wanted. Instead resentment swelled in her throat. How could Percy talk so enthusiastically about this place? What about Camp Half-Blood––**_**their camp, their home?**_

"You know I love Camp Half-Blood but I thought you would like to see Camp Jupiter because of all the different architecture." Percy frowned.

"The architecture is amazing," Annabeth agreed. "but I guess I'm just worried that you won't want to leave Camp Jupiter. I want to be with you more than anything but I wouldn't fit in here."

"Annabeth, me staying here isn't something you need to worry about. Camp Half-Blood is my home and I would never trade it for Camp Jupiter." Percy reassured her. Annabeth nodded and leaned into Percy.

**She tried not to stare at the new marks on Percy's forearm–an SPQR tattoo like Jason's. At Camp Half-Blood, demigods got bead necklaces to commemorate years of training. Here, the Romans burned a tattoo into your flesh, as if to say: **_**You belong to us. Permanently.**_

Jason silently thought about that. Was that what it was? He never thought that before, but now that it was brought up...what would he do if Piper wouldn't stay at Camp Jupiter with him? What if she didn't feel like she belonged here and she had to go back to Camp Half-Blood? Would he be able to give up his home to be with her?

**She swallowed back some biting comments. "Okay. Sure."**

**"I've been thinking," he said nervously. "I had this idea––"**

"What idea?" Annabeth asked.

"I have no idea." Percy shrugged. "I guess we're going to have to wait until it's in the book."

**He stopped as Reyna called a toast to friendship.**

**After introductrions all around, the Romans and Annabeth's crew began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick––she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman) **

All of the Romans gasped as one. "Are you trying to be killed?"

Annabeth shrugged. "She won't do anything to me. She knows she deserves it, Don't you Hera?"

"She really is perfect for Percy isn't she?" Frank asked Hazel as he thought back to when Percy talked back to Mars.

**from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.**

"You should've left her there." Percy muttered under his breath, causing Annabeth to have to stifle her laughter.

**"Impossible!" Octavian broke in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there––"**

**"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish."**

"How dare you, _a Greek, _talk to a Roman general that way?" Octavian demanded.

"Well, maybe if you weren't such a jerk it wouldn't be necessary." Jason defended his girlfriend.

Before Octavian could say anything Reyna glared at him. "Octavian, that's _enough._"

**Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Annabeth really loved Piper's charmspeak. She noticed Reyna looking back and forth between Jason and Piper, her brow creased as if just beginning to realize the two of them were a couple.**

Annabeth frowned as if she was regretting her thoughts. She thought of a way she could make it seem like Reyna wasn't jealous and finally it came to her.

"I know how you feel." Annabeth sighed. "If my friend didn't tell me he was dating someone I'd be mad too. It would be like if Leo didn't tell me he had a girlfriend."

Everyone went along with what Annabeth was saying except for Piper, who didn't know what to think, Percy, who looked like he actually understood what was going on for once, and Reyna, who looked thankful.

**"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tarturus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands––Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by...what did he call it? **_**Pulling up their roots.**_**"**

**Percy nodded thoughtfully. "Gaea's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face."**

**Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name––**_**Annabeth**_**.**

Again all of the Venus girls squealed. One of them spoke up. "Percy, I want a boyfriend exactly like you! Except I obviously can't date you because I can't break my own OTP up."

"Um, thanks." Percy said.

**When she heard that, Annabeth had to try hard not to cry. Percy told them how he'd traveled to Alaska with Frank and Hazel––how they'd defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giant's army.**

"All of that makes our quest sound easy." Jason smiled.

**When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you praetor."**

"About that," Octavian smirked. "There can only be two praetors."

"Obviously Jason and Reyna are going to be the two praetors." Percy said. "I didn't even really want to be praetor."

"Are you serious?" Jason asked." Just like that?"

"No big deal." Percy shrugged.

**Octavian snorted. "Which means we now have **_**three **_**praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"**

**"On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can **_**both **_**tell you to shut up."**

Everyone laughed except for Octavian and a couple of his friends. Octavian turned red and glared at Percy with hate.

**Octavian turned as purple as a Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump.**

**Even Reyna managed a smile, though her eyes were stormy.**

This time Annabeth noticed that Reyna kept smiling at the stupid things Percy said. She didn't like him, did she?

**"We'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later," she said. "Right now we have more serious issues to deal with."**

**"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily. "It's no biggie."**

**"No **_**biggie**_**?" Octavian choked. "The praetorship of Rome is **_**no biggie**_**?"**

Annabeth couldn't help feeling relieved. That was living proof that Percy wasn't _too _attached to Camp Jupiter.

**Percy ignored him and turned to Jason. "You're Thalia Grace's brother, huh? Wow. You guys look nothing alike."**

"Who's Thalia Grace?" Reyna asked.

"She's my full sister." Jason answered. "She's a daughter of Zeus, Hunter of Artemis."

**"Yeah, I noticed," Jason said. "Anyway, thanks for helping my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job."**

**"Back at you." Percy said.**

**Annabeth kicked his shin. She hated to interrupt a budding bromance, but Reyna was right: they had serious things to discuss. "We should talk about the Great Prophecy. It sounds like the Romans are aware of it too?"**

"The Prophecy of Seven." Dakota nodded.

**Reyna nodded. "We call it the Prophecy of Seven. Octavian, you have it commited to memory?"**

**"Of course," he said. "But, Reyna––"**

**"Recite it, please. In English, not Latin."**

"Thanks." Annabeth smiled.

"No problem." Reyna waved her off.

**Octavian sighed. "**_**Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall––"**_

_**"An oath to keep with a final breath,**_**" Annabeth continued. "**_**And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."**_

**Everyone stared at her–except for Leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminum foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits. **

"That's awesome!" Dakota grinned.

"It's not that cool." Leo shrugged. "It's pretty simple actually.

**Annabeth wasn't sure why she had blurted out the lines of the prophecy. She'd just felt compelled.**

**The big kid, Frank, sat forward, staring at her in fascination, as if she'd grown a third eye. "Is it true you're a child of Min–I mean, Athena?"**

**"Yes," she said, suddenly feeling defensive. "Why is that such a surprise?"**

"She's a maiden goddess." Frank explained himself. "I didn't mean to insult you, I was just curious."

Annabeth waved him off, "Frank, I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't insult me."

**Octavian scoffed. "If you're truly a child of the **_**wisdom **_**goddess–"**

**"Enough," Reyna snapped. "Annabeth is what she says. She's here in peace. Besides..." She gave Annabeth a look of grudging respect. "Percy has spoken highly of you."**

Annabeth turned red as she noticed Percy was looking at anything but her or Reyna. _Reyna made a move on Percy? _ Reyna didn't looked affected by anything she said in the book. Annabeth didn't know how to feel about this new information, so she just let her book self take over. It didn't seem like anybody else realized what Reyna meant in the book. Annabeth hoped her book self didn't realize either, she didn't want Reyna to be embarrased by anything.

**The undertones in Reyna's voice took Annabeth a moment to decipher. Percy looked down, suddenly interested in his cheeseburger.**

"Oh." Piper realized as she glanced at Annabeth, Reyna, and Percy to see their reactions.

**Annabeth's face felt hot. Oh, gods...Reyna had tried to make a move on Percy. That explained the tinge of bitterness, maybe even envy, in her words. Percy had turned her down for Annabeth.**

Everyone was shocked and Reyna was trying very hard not to be embarrased.

"When did that happen?" Somebody asked in surprise.

"Just before the quest." Reyna said trying to act indifferent.

"It was more of a her needing another praetor thing really." Percy continued, but Annabeth could tell that it was more than that. It looked like Piper noticed that too, but everyone else seemed like they believed Percy.

**At that moment, Annabeth forgave her ridiculous boyfriend for everything he'd ever done wrong. **

"Everything?" Percy smiled.

"There might be some exceptions..." Annabeth said thoughtfully.

"But you said everything." Percy pointed out.

"I didn't say that. My book-self did." Annabeth smirked.

Percy pouted in that cute way that made him look like a baby seal and Annabeth sighed in defeat, "Fine, you're forgiven for everything you've ever done."

Everyone looked at her incredulously, did Annabeth Chase really just lose a fight?

**She wanted to throw her arms around him, but she commanded herself to stay cool.**

All of the daughter of Venus started giggling and whispering to each other and Annabeth used all of her will power to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

**"Uh, thanks," she told Reyna. "At any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death...that means Romans and Greeks. We have to combine forces to find those doors."**

**Hazel, the girl with the cavalry helmet and the long curly hair, picked up something next to her plate. It looked like a large ruby; but before Annabeth could be sure, Hazel slipped it into the pocket of her denim shirt.**

All of the seven looked at each other; they were all fully aware of Hazel's situation.

**"My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors," she said.**

**"Wait," Annabeth said. "Nico di Angelo? He's your brother?" **

**Hazel nodded as if this were obvious. A dozen more questions crowded into Annabeth's head, but it was already spinning like Leo's pinwheel. She decided to let the matter go. "Okay. You were saying?"**

Annabeth rolled her eyes at Hazel, "How was I supposed to know that?"

Hazel laughed, "Geez, Annabeth, you sound so serious."

"Wait, you guys know Nico?" Reyna asked.

"Of course we know Nico," Piper answered. "He's Greek."

Reyna didn't say anything to Piper, but it was clear she wanted to.

**"He disappeared." Hazel moistened her lips. "I'm afraid...I'm not sure, but I think something's happened to him."**

Everyone who knew Nico looked down sadly. The Romans looked like they wanted to be sad, but they were still in shock that Nico was Greek.

**"We'll look for him." Percy promised. "We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we'd find both answers in Rome–like the **_**original **_**Rome. That's on the way to Greece, right?"**

**"Thanatos told you this?" Annabeth tried to wrap her mind around **_**that **_**idea. "The death god?"**

**She'd met many gods. She'd even been to the Underworld; but Percy's story about freeing the incarnation of death itself really creeped her out.**

"I can't blame you." One of the centurions muttered. "I think it would creep anyone out."

**Percy took a bite out of his burger. "Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they'll just keep coming back."**

**Piper twisted the feather in her hair. "Like water leaking through a dam," she suggested.**

**"Yeah." Percy smiled. "We've got a dam hole."**

Percy laughed, before sighing. "I wish Nico and Thalia were here."

Annabeth grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Me too."

**"What?" Piper asked.**

**"Nothing," he said. "Inside joke. The point is we'll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It's the only way we'll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they **_**stay **_**defeated."**

**Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. "You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands–and the Mare Nostrum–are dangerous?"**

**"Mary who?" Leo asked.**

"Next you'll be calling Enceladus enchiladas again." Piper laughed. Jason soon joined in leaving Leo pouting next to them. Reyna stared at Piper and Jason laughing together and felt regret that Piper and Jason had jokes that she would never be able to understand no matter how hard she tried.

**"Mare Nostrum," Jason explained. "**_**Our **_**Sea. It's what the ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."**

**Reyna nodded. "The territory that was once the Roman empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants...and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods her in America, **_**there **_**it would be ten times worse."**

**"You said Alaska would be bad," Percy reminded her. "We survived that."**

**Reyna shook her head. Her fingernails cut little crescents into the apple as she turned it. "Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It's been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there."**

"It's a good think none of us are sane then." Leo grinned, seeing Annabeth about to protest Leo continued what he was saying. "Annabeth don't even deny it! You must be crazy if yours and Percy's first kiss was when you guys were about to die by an exploding volcano!"

"How do you know that?" Annabeth demanded as she and Percy blushed a bright red.

Leo looked scared. "Right, um, I wasn't exactly supposed to tell you I knew...this is a disaster!"

"Answer now or you I will make you wish you were fighting giants." Annabeth threatened him. Added with Percy's scary glare next to her, Leo couldn't resist.

"Connor and Travis have a video of it! They have a bunch of videos of you guys and your embarrasing moments." Leo looked scared. "Please don't tell them I told you. They would prank me for weeks."

First Annabeth looked angry, then she got a grin on her face that Leo thought was more disturbing then Annabeth's angry face.

"So what are you going to do?" Leo asked nervously.

"Nothing yet." Annabeth smiled innocently making Leo gulp.

**"Then we're good!" Leo grinned over the top of his pinwheel. "Because we're all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She'll get us through."**

"Leo, you never change." Jason laughed.

**"We'll have to hurry,"Jason added. "I don't know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaea is growing more conscious all the time. She's invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully."**

**Annabeth shuddered. she'd had her own share of nightmares lately.**

**"**_**Seven half-bloods must answer the call,**_**" she said. "It needs to be a mix of both our camps. Jason, Piper, Leo, and me. That's four."**

**"And me," Percy said. "Along with Hazel and Frank. That's seven."**

"That's good." Annabeth smiled. "We'll make a good team." The rest of the seven smiled at her, obviously in agreement.

**"What?" Octavian shot to his feet. "We're supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without–"**

**"Percy!" Tyson the Cyclops bounded toward them with Mrs. O'Leary at his heels. On the hellhound's back sat the skinniest harpy Annabeth had ever seen–a sickly-looking girl with stringy red hair, a sackcloth dress, and red-feathered wings.**

"Ella." Hazel smiled in recognition.

**Annabeth didn't know where the harpy had come from, but her heart warmed to see Tyson in his tattered flannel and denim with the backward SPQR banner across his chest. She'd had some pretty bad experiences with Cyclopses, but Tyson was a sweetheart. He was also Percy's half brother (long story), which made him almost like family.**

**Tyson stopped by their couch and wrung his meaty hands. His big brown eye was full of concern. "Ella is scared," he said.**

**"No-n-no more boats," the harpy muttered to herself, picking furiously at her feathers. "Titanic, Lusitania, Pax...boats are not for harpies."**

**Leo squinted. he looked at Hazel, who was seated next to him. "Did that chicken girl just compare **_**my **_**ship to the Titanic?"**

"She isn't a chicken." Hazel told him.

"I know that now." Leo rolled his eyes.

**"She's not a chicken." Hazel averted her eyes as if Leo made her nervous. "Ella's a harpy. She's just a little...high-strung."**

**"Ella is pretty," Tyson said. "And scared. We need to take her away, but she will not go on the ship."**

**"No ships," Ella repeated. She looked straight at Annabeth. "Bad luck. There she is. Wisdom's daughter walks alone–"**

Hazel and Frank looked at each other; Jason's, Piper's, and Leo's eyes widened, and Annabeth's grip on Percy's hand tightened.

**"Ella!" Frank stood suddenly. "Maybe it's not the best time–"**

"Why is she doing this now? It's not exactly the best time." Percy asked Annabeth.

Annabeth shrugged worriedly. "Seeing me must have triggered it."

**"The Mark of Athena burns through Rome," Ella continued, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death. Giants' bane stands gold and pale, Won through pain from a woven jail."**

"This is new." Annabeth breathed. "This is new."

Percy hugged Annabeth to his chest, not willing to let her go as Annabeth closed her eyes, doing the opposite of resisting to Percy protectiveness.

**The effect was like someone dropping a flash grenade on the table. Everyone stared at the harpy. No one spoke. Annabeth's heart was pounding. The Mark of Athena...She resisted the urge to check her pocket, but she could feel the silver coin growing warmer–the cursed gift from her mother. Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me.**

"What is that?" Percy asked worriedly. "What happened with your mom?"

Annabeth wanted to tell him, she really did, but she knew she couldn't. "I'm sure you will find out in the book. If you don't...I promise I'll tell you everything."

**Around them, the sounds of the feast continued, but muted and distant, as if their little cluster of couches had slipped into a quieter dimension. **

**Percy was the first to recover. He stood and took Tyson's arm.**

**"I know!" he said with feigned enthusiasm. "How about you take Ella to get some fresh air? You and Mrs. O'Leary–"**

"It's not going to be that easy." Octavian muttered to himself.

**"Hold on." Octavian gripped one of his teddy bears, strangling it with his shaking hands. His eyes fixed on Ella. "What was that she said? It sounded like–"**

**"Ella reads a lot," Frank blurted out. "We found her at a library."**

**"Yes!" Hazel said. "Probably just something she read in a book."**

**"Books," Ella muttered helpfully. "Ella likes books."**

**Now that she'd said her piece, the harpy seemed more relaxed. She sat cross-legged on Mrs. O'Leary's back, preening her wings.**

"I'm glad she's relaxed." Annabeth mumbled.

**Annabeth gave Percy a curiuos glance. Obviously, he and Frank and Hazel were hiding something. Just as obviously, Ella had recited a prophecy–a prophecy that concerned her.**

**Percy's expression said, **_**Help.**_

**"That was a prophecy," Octavian insisted. "It sounded like a prophecy."**

Nobody said anything, there was no use denying the fact.

**No one answered.**

**Annabeth wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but she understood that Percy was on the verge of big trouble.**

**She forced a laugh. "Really, Octavian? Maybe harpies are different here, on the Roman side. Ours have just enough intelligence to clean cabins and cook lunches. Do yours really fortell the future? Do you consult them for your auguries?"**

"You are holding information from the senate knowingly." Octavian declared. "You must be punished!"

"Octavian!" Reyna snapped.

Octavian argued, "Praetor, you must do something. She is clear-"

"That is enough!" Reyna yelled. "It is up to me to decide who to punish. I will wait and see Annabeth's reasoning behind witholding important information. You will sit down and be quiet, or leave."

Octavian scowled, but said down anway, while Annabeth shot Reyna a grateful look.

**Her words had the intended effect. The Roman officers laughed nervously. Some sized up Ella, then looked at Octavian and snorted. The idea of a chicken lady issuing prophecies was apparently just as ridiculous to Romans as it was to Greeks.**

"I am so happy that you're my girlfriend." Percy sighed. "If you weren't I would've died so many times."

"That goes both ways though." Annabeth smiled. Everyone seemed as though they were getting used to how much Percy and Annabeth had been through together.

**"I, uh..." Otavian dropped his teddy bear. "No, but–"**

**"She's just spouting lines from some book," Annabeth said, "like Hazel suggested. Besides, we already have a real prophecy to worry about."**

**She turned to Tyson. "Percy's right. Why don't you take Ella and Mrs. O'Leary and shadow-travel somewhere for a while. Is Ella okay with that?"**

**"Large dogs are good," Ella said. "Old Yeller, 1957, screeplay by Fred Gipson and William Tunberg."**

**Annabeth wasn't sure how to take that answer, but Percy smiled like the problem was solved.**

"It means yes." Frank said helpfully. Many people looked like they just realized that.

**"Great!" Percy said. "We'll iris-message you guys when we're done and catch up with you later."**

**The Romans looked at Reyna, waiting for her ruling. Annabeth held her breath.**

**Reyna had an excellent poker face. She studied Ella, but Annabeth couldn't guess what she was thinking.**

Annabeth looked surprised, "I'm impressed. I could usually read most people."

"I think you'll find that I'm much differant from most people." Reyna replied.

**"Fine," the praetor said at last. "Go."**

**"Yay!" Tyson went around the couches and gave everyone a big hug–even Octavian, who didn't look happy about it. Then he climbed on Mrs. O'Leary's back with Ella, and the hellhound bounded out of the forum. They dove straight into a shadow on the Senate House wall and disappeared.**

**"Well." Reyna sat down her uneaten apple. "Octavian is right about one thing. We must gain the senate's approval before we let any of our legionnaires go on a quest–especially on as dangerous as you're suggesting."**

Percy frowned. "It's not fully the Senate' s decision. Our camp has a say too."

"While you are in my camp, you have to obey our rules." Reyna said without a change of facial expression. Percy looked like he wanted to argue, but Annabeth put a hand on his arm and signaled for him to keep silent.

**"This whole thing smells of treachery," Octavian grumbled. "That trireme is not a ship of peace!"**

**"Come aboard, man," Leo offered. "I'll give you a tour. You can steer the boat, and if you're really good I'll give you a little paper captain's hat to wear."**

The people tried to contain their laughter,but they couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping them.

**Octavian's nostrils flared. "How dare you–"**

**"It's a good idea," Reyna said. "Octavian, go with him. See the ship. We'll convene a senate meeting in one hour."**

**"But..." Octavian stopped. Apparently he could tell from Reyna's expression that further arguing would not be good for his health. "Fine."**

**Leo got up. He turned to Annabeth, and his smile changed. It happened so quickly, Annabeth thought she'd imagined it; but just for a moment someone else seemed to be standing in Leo's place, smiling coldly with a cruel light in his eyes. Then Annabeth blinked, and Leo was just regular old Leo again, with his usual impish grin.**

Percy groaned. "Usually, when you see something you aren't imagining it. You should say something."

Annabeth frowned. "I might be imagining it though."

"You know you're not." Percy said, before glancing at Leo's terrified face.

**"Back soon," he promised. "This is gonna be epic."**

**A horrible chill settled over her. As Leo and Octavian headed for the rope ladder, she thought about calling them back–but how could she explain that? Tell everyone she was going crazy, seeing things and feeling cold?**

"I would've believed you." Percy promised.

"I know." Annabeth assured him.

**The wind spirits began clearing their plates.**

**"Uh, Reyna," Jason said, "if you don't mind, I'd like to show Piper around before the senate meeting. She's never seen New Rome."**

**Reyna's expression hardened.**

Piper fidgeted uncomfortably, while Jason looked confused and Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**Annabeth wondered how Jason could be so dense. Was it possible he really didn't understand how much Reyna liked him? It was obvious enough to Annabeth. Asking to show his new girlfriend around Reyna's city was rubbing salt in the wound. **

"Oh." Jason said as he turned red and looked turned toward the ground. Reyna continued to stare straight at the book, but Annabeth noticed that Reyna was wearing the same look that Annabeth wore when she saw Percy with Rachel for the first time. All of the Romans were staring between Reyna and Jason, not knowing how to react.

**"Of course," Reyna said coldly.**

**Percy took Annabeth's hand. "Yeah, me, too. I'd like to show Annabeth–"**

**"No," Reyna snapped.**

"Wait, what?" Percy asked.

"I obviously want to talk to Annabeth." Reyna said.

**Percy knit his eyebrows. "Sorry?"**

**"I'd like a few words with Annabeth," Reyna said. "Alone. If you don't mind, my fellow praetor."**

**Her tone made it clear she wasn't really asking permission.**

**The chill spread down Annabeth's back. She wondered what Reyna was up to. Maybe the praetor didn't like the idea of two guys who had rejected her giving their girlfriends tours of her city. Or maybe there was something she wanted to say in private. Either way, Annabeth was reluctant to be alone and unarmed with the Roman leader.**

Once again, Percy was uncomfortable at the mention of Reyna making a move on Percy.

**"Come, daughter of Athena." Reyna rose from her couch. "Walk with me."**

"Who wants to read the next chapter?" Annabeth asked.

"I would like to." Reyna volunteered.

**A/N: Long chapter = finally over. Question of the chapter: How many Ares campers attacked Percy during his first game of Capture the Flag?**


	5. Annabeth IV

**AN: The correct answer was five! An exact quote from the book was, "Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark." The first person to guess this correctly was Kelsey Daughter of Poseidon. As a reward, I will review one of her stories. Just in case anyone is confused, this story takes place after Annabeth, Leo, Piper, and Jason get off the Argo II. In the beginning of the story, whoever was in my previous story, Reading the Son of Neptune, got their memories of reading the book back. And I'm soooo embarrased that I haven't updated. I still have play practice late every night and I have finals this week...and I have the flu. I'm a lucky girl right?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the words in bold. **

**'Annabeth IV,' **Reyna read.

**Annabeth wanted to hate New Rome. But as an aspiring architect, she couldn't help admiring the terraced gardens, the fountains and temples, the winding cobblestone streets and gleaming white villas. After the Titan War last summer, she'd gotten her dream job of redesigning the palaces of Mount Olympus. Now, walking through this miniature city, she kept thinking, **_**I should have made a dome like that. I love the way those columns lead into that courtyard. **_**Whoever designed New Rome had clearly poured a lot of time and love into the project.**

Percy rolled his eyes, "Annabeth, Olympus is beautiful! Trust me, there's no way you could've made it any better."

Annabeth smiled, "Thanks, but New Rome is beautiful. I could never even compete with the architecture here."

"I think whoever has seen Olympus would disagree." Percy argued.

"Nobody here has seen it but you and me." Annabeth pointed out.

"And I think Olympus is more beautiful than Times Square during Christmas time." Percy grinned. Annabeth blushed. She might not agree with Percy, but she appreciated his compliment anyway.

**"We have the best architects and builders in the world," Reyna said, as if reading her thoughts. "Rome always did, in the ancient times. Many demigods stay on to live here after their time at the legion. They go to our university. They settle down to raise families. Percy seemed interested in this fact."**

Percy blushed, leaving Annabeth confused.

**Annabeth wondered what **_**that **_**meant. She must have scowled more fiercely than she realized, because Reyna laughed.**

"I meant that he seemed interested in settling down and having a family." Reyna smiled as she hid the pain the sentence caused. Seeing that Annabeth was still confused Reyna continued. "With _you._"

"Oh." Annabeth blushed and glanced at Percy, who was just as red as she was.

"We could talk about this later?" Percy whispered to Annabeth as he tried to avoid all of the giggling girls staring at him and Annabeth. Annabeth nodded in response.

**"You're a warrior, all right," the praetor said. "You've got fire in your eyes."**

"That doesn't work." Piper informed Annabeth.

"Sorry." Annabeth shrugged, she was clearly not concerned.

**"Sorry." Annabeth tried to tone down the glare.**

**"Don't be. I'm the daughter of Bellona."**

**"Roman goddess of war?"**

"That explains a lot." Piper muttered to herself as she glanced at Reyna.

**Reyna nodded. She turned and whistled like she was hailing a cab. A moment later, two metal dogs raced toward them–automaton greyhounds, one silver and one gold. They brushed against Reyna's legs and regarded Annabeth with glistening ruby eyes.**

"Oh," Annabeth said in realization." She's making sure I don't lie."

"How do you know that?" Reyna asked.

"I read a book about what happened to Percy after he disappeared, remember?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh, right." Reyna nodded.

**"My pets," Reyna exclaimed. "Aurum and Argentum. You don't mind if they walk with us?"**

Reyna smiled sheepishly. "This is kind of awkward considering that you know I'm just making sure you don't lie."

"My book self doesn't know that." Annabeth shrugged.

**Again, Annabeth got the feeling it wasn't really a request. She noted that the greyhounds had teeth like steel arrowheads. Maybe weapons weren't allowed inside the city, but Reyna's pets could still tear her to pieces if they chose.**

**Reyna led her to an outdoor cafe, where the waiter clearly knew her. He smiled and handed her a to-go cup, then offered one to Annabeth.**

"Everyone knows Reyna." A Roman shrugged. "She's the praetor."

"It's kind of like how everyone knows Percy and Annabeth at Camp Half-Blood." Leo pointed out.

**"Would you like some?" Reyna asked. "They make wonderful hot chocolate. Not really a Roman drink–"**

**"But chocolate is universal," Annabeth said.**

**"Exactly."**

**It was a warm June afternoon, but Annabeth accepted the cup with thanks. The two of them walked on, Reyna's gold and silver dogs roaming nearby.**

"Hot chocolate is good during any time of the year." Reyna smiled.

"That's true." Annabeth responded.

**"In our camp," Reyna said, "Athena is Minerva. Are you familiar with how her Roman form is different?"**

"She isn't very respected, is she?" Annabeth asked.

"Not..exactly." Jason replied uncomfortably. "Just keep reading."

**Annabeth hadn't really considered it before. She remembered the way Terminus had called Athena **_**that **_**goddess, as if she were scandalous. Octavian had acted like Annabeth's very existence was an insult.**

**"I take it Minerva isn't...Uh, quite as respected here?"**

**Reyna blew steam from her cup. "We respect Minerva. She's the goddess of crafts and wisdom...but she isn't really a goddess of war. Not for Romans. She's also a maiden goddess, like Diana...the one you call Artemis. You won't find any children of Minerva here. The idea that Minerva would have children–frankly, it's a little shocking to us."**

"You said she's still a maiden?" A Roman asked.

"Yeah."

"How does she have kids?"

"That's none of your business." Annabeth replied uncomfortably.

**"Oh." Annabeth felt her face flush. She didn't want to get into the details of Athena's children–how they were born straight from the mind of the goddess, just as Athena herself had sprung from the head of Zeus. **

"I see why you didn't want to talk about it." Somebody said rudely. "I'd be embarrased too."

"It's nothing to be embarrased about." Percy loyally defended his girlfriend. The Romans, seeing how defensive their praetor was, decided to shut up and leave the subject alone.

**Talking about that always made Annabeth feel self-conscious, like she was some sort of freak. People usually asked her whether or not she had a belly button, since she had been born magically. **_**Of course **_**she had a belly button. She couldn't explain how. She didn't really want to know.**

**"I understand that you Greeks don't see things the same way," Reyna continued. "But Romans take vows of maidenhood very seriously. The Vestal Virgins, for instance...if they broke their vows and fell in love with anyone, they would be buried alive. So the idea that a maiden goddess would have children–"**

**"Got it." Annabeth's hot chocolate suddenly tasted like dust. No wonder the Romans had been giving her strange looks. "I'm not supposed to exist. And even if your camp **_**had **_**children of Minerva–"**

"They would be much different from you." Octavian muttered under his breath.

**"They wouldn't be like you," Reyna said. "They might be craftsmen, artists, maybe advisers, but not warriors. Not leaders of dangerous quests."**

**Annabeth started to object that she wasn't the leader of the quest. Not officially. But she wondered if her friends on the Argo II would agree. The past few days, they had been looking to her for orders–even Jason, who could have pulled rank as the son of Jupiter, and Coach Hedge, who didn't take orders from anyone.**

"You are _definitely _the leader." Jason said. "We would all be lost without you. We wouldn't know what to do."

"That's true." Piper agreed.

"Thanks." Annabeth smiled.

**"There's more." Reyna snapped her fingers, and her golden dog, Aurum, trotted over. The praetor stroked his ears. "The harpy Ella...it **_**was **_**a prophect she spoke. We both know that, don't we?"**

"So you know too?" Octavian accused Reyna. "You must be plotting against the romans!"

Reyna rolled her eyes, "Or I didn't say anything because I want to get more information. Or maybe, it's just that I trust Annabeth and I think she know's what she's doing."

"But-"

"Oh shut it Octavian," Leo dismissed him. "Let's just continue the book and see how that turns out."

**Annabeth swallowed. Something about Aurum's ruby eyes made her uneasy. She had heard that dogs could smell fear, even detect changes in a human's breathing and heartbeat. She didn 't know if that applied to magical metal dogs, but she decided it would be better to tell the truth.**

Percy let out a deep breath in relief, "It's a good thing you have amazing instincts."

**"It sounded like a prophecy," she admitted. "But I've never met Ella before today, and I've never heard those lines exactly."**

"A lie that's not a lie, I like it." said Leo approvedly. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**"I have," Reyna murmered. "At least some of them–"**

**A few yards away, the silver dog barked. A group of children spilled out of a nearby alleyway and gathered around Argentum, petting the dog and laughing, unfazed by its razor-sharp teeth.**

**"We should move on," Reyna said.**

**They wound their way up the hill. The greyhounds followed, leaving the children behind. Annabeth kept glancing at Annabeth's face. A vague memory started tugging at her–the way Reyna brushed her hair behind her ear, the silver ring she wore with the torch and sword design.**

"Oh you're going to figure out how you know her much sooner than I do." Percy laughed.

"Like usual." Annabeth grinned.

"How do you know her?" A legionnaire asked.

"You'll see." Reyna said.

**"We've met before," Annabeth ventured. "You were younger, I think."**

**Reyna gave her a dry smile. "Very good. Percy didn't remember me. Of course you spoke mostly with my older sister Hylla, who is now queen of the Amazons. She left just this morning, before you arrived. At any rate, when we last met, I was a mere handmaiden in the house of Circe."**

"Woah." many of the Romans looked at her in shock and disbelief, before Reyna silenced them all with a look that made everyone shut their mouths.

**"Circe..." Annabeth remembered her trip to the island of the sorceress. She'd been thirteen. Percy and she had washed ashore from the Sea of Monsters. Hylla had welcomed them. She had helped Annabeth get cleaned up and given her a beautiful new dress and a complete makeover. Then Circe had made her sales pitch: if Annabeth stayed on the island, she could have magical training and incredible power. Annabeth had been tempted, maybe just a little, until she realized that this place was a trap, and Percy had been turned into a rodent. (That last part seemed funny afterward; but at the time, it had been terrifying.) As for Reyna...she'd been one of the servants who had combed Annabeth's hair.**

Reyna winced. "It wasn't the best time of my life. I didn't realize that when I was younger."

"We all make stupid mistakes." Hazel shrugged as she thought of all the dumb mistakes she made when she was younger.

**"You..." Annabeth said in amazement. "And Hylla is queen of the Amazons? How did you two–?"**

**"Long story," Reyna said. "But I remember you well. You were brave. I'd never seen anyone refuse Circe's hospitality, much less outwit her. It's no wonder Percy cares for you."**

**Her voice was wistful. Annabeth thought it might be safer not to respond.**

Again, all of the Romans were stopped from saying something by Reyna's glare.

**They reached the top of the hell, where a terrace overlooked the entire valley.**

**"This is my favorite spot," Reyna said. "The Garden of Bacchus."**

**Grapevine trellises made a canopy overhead. Bees buzzed through honeysuckle and jasmine, which filled the afternoon air with a dizzying mix of perfumes. In the middle of the terrace stood a statue of Bacchus in a sort of ballet position, wearing nothing but a loincloth, his cheeks puffed out and lips pursed, spouting water into the fountain.**

At once, Percy and Annabeth cracked up, leaving everyone else clueless.

"Imagine if Mr. D knew we saw something like that!" Percy gasped.

"He would probably make us go crazy!" Annabeth laughed.

"What's going on?" Frank asked.

Annabeth immedietely started explaining. "Dionysus, or Bacchus in Roman, is our camp leader back at the Greek camp. We all called him Mr. D there. He's what you would call a-"

"Grumpy, mean man." Percy suggested.

"Sure." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "If he knew he saw him like that, he would be very angry."

**Despite her worries, Annabeth almost laughed. She knew the god in his Greek form, Dionysus–or Mr. D, as they called him back at Camp Half-Blood. Seeing their cranky old camp director immortalized in stone, wearing a diaper and spewing water from his mouth, made her feel a little better.**

**Reyna stopped at the edge of the terrace. The view was worth the climb. The whole city spread out below them like a 3-D mosaic. To the south, beyond the lake, a cluster of temples perched on a hill. To the north, an aqueduct marched toward the Berkeley Hills. Work crews were repairing a broken section, probably damaged in the recent battle.**

"Yep." Reyna sighed.

**"I wanted to hear it from you," Reyna said.**

**Annabeth turned. "Hear **_**what **_**from me?"**

**"The truth," Reyna said. "Convince me that I'm not making a mistake by trustiing you. Tell me about yourself. Tell me about Camp Half-Blood. Your friend Piper has sorcery in her words. I spent enough time with Circe to know charmspeak when I hear it. I can't trust what she says. And Jason...well, he has changed. He seems distant, no longer quite Roman."**

**The hurt in her voice was as sharp as broken glass.**

Jason looked away uncomfortably as Piper grabbed his hand and Reyna kept up her straight face and ignored how she was feeling on the inside. All of the Romans chose to ignore the previous sentence to avoid making this awkward silence any longer.

**Annabeth wondered if she had sounded that way, all the months she'd spent searching for Percy. At least she'd found her boyfriend. Reyna had no one. She was responsible for running an entire camp all by herself. Annabeth could sense that Reyna wanted Jason to love her. But he had disappeared, only to come back with a new girlfriend. Meanwhile, Percy had risen to praetor, but he had rebuffed Reyna too. Now Annabeth had come to take him away. Reyna would be left alone again, shouldering a job meant for two people.**

"It must be hard." Annabeth whispered as she glance at Reyna. Percy nodded, not knowing how he was supposed to react.

**When Annabeth had arrived at Camp Jupiter, she'd been prepared to negotiate with Reyna or even fight her if needed. She hadn't been prepared to feel sorry for her.**

"Don't feel sorry for me." Reyna snapped

**She kept that feeling hidden. Reyna didn't strike her as someone who would appreciate pity.**

Reyna nodded.

**Instead, she told Reyna about her own life. She talked about her dad and stepmom and her two stepbrothers in San Francisco, and how she had felt like an outsider in her own family. She talked about how she had run away when she was seven, finding her friends Luke and Thalia and making her way to Camp Half-Blood on Long Island. She described the camp and her years growing up there. She talked about meeting Percy and the adventures they'd had together.**

"You're opening up a lot." Percy noticed.

"Yeah I am." Annabeth agreed.

**Reyna was a good listener.**

**Annabeth was tempted to tell her about more recent problems: her fight with her mom, the gift of the silver coin, and the nightmares she'd been having–about an old fear so paralyzing, she'd almost decided that she couldn't go on this quest. But she couldn't bring herself to open up quite that much.**

"She must be a really good listener." Leo laughed.

**When Annabeth was done talking, Reyna gazed over New Rome. Her metal greyhounds sniffed around the garden, snapping at bees in the honeysuckle. Finally Reyna pointed to the cluster of temples on the distant hill.**

**"The small red building," she said, "there on the northern side? That's the temple of my mother, Bellona." Reyna turned toward Annabeth. "Unlike your mother, Bellona has no Greek equivalent. She is fully, truly Roman. She's the goddess of protecting the homeland."**

**Annabeth said nothing. She knew very little about the Roman goddess. She wished she had studied up, but Latin never came as easily to her as Greek. Down below, the hull of the Argo II gleamed as it floated over the forum, like some massive bronze party balloon.**

**"When the Romans go to war," Reyna continued, "we first visit the temple of Bellona. Inside is a symbolic patch of ground that represents enemy soil. We throw a spear into the ground, indicating that we are now at war. You see, Romans have always believed that offense is the best defense. In ancient times, whenever our ancestors felt threatened by their neighbors, they would invade to protect themselves." **

"That's an interesting tradition." Piper commented.

**"They conquered everyone around them," Annabeth said. "Carthage, the Gauls–"**

**"And the Greeks." Reyna let that comment hang. "My point, Annabeth, is that it isn't Rome's nature to cooperate with other powers. Every time Greek and Roman demigods have met, we've fought. Conflicts between our two sides have started some of the most horrible wars in human history–especially civil wars."**

"We have to try." Percy said. "Or else we all die."

Many people looked down at that comment, thinking it over carefully.

**"It doesn't have to be that way," Annabeth said, "We've got to work together, or Gaea will destroy us both."**

**"I agree," Reyna said. "But is cooperation possible? What if Juno's plan is flawed? Even goddesses can make mistakes."**

"Oh, trust me. I know Hera makes many mistakes." Annabeth said as her eyes turned dark. Nobody asked her a question. The people who didn't know what made her so angry were scared, the people who knew her well already knew why she was angry, and then some just knew how to mind their own business.

**Annabeth waited for Reyna to get struck by lightning or turned into a peacock. Nothing happened.**

**Unfortunately, Annabeth shared Reyna's doubts. Hera did make mistakes. Annabeth had had nothing but trouble from that overbearing goddess, and she'd never forgive Hera for taking Percy away, even if it was for a noble cause.**

Annabeth looked down as Percy pulled her closer into his side before comforting her. "She won't ever take me away again. I won't let her."

Many smiled at the love the couple shared, but didn't say anything. They didn't want to ruin the moment.

**"I don't trust the goddess," Annabeth admitted. "But I do trust my friends. This isn't a trick, Reyna. We can work together."**

**Reyna finished her cup of chocolate. She set the cup on the terrace railing and gazed over the valley as if imagining battle lines.**

**"I believe you mean it," she said. "But if you go to the ancient lands, especially Rome itself, there is something you should know about your mother."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "My–my mother?"**

**"When I lived on Circe's island," Reyna said, "we had many visitors. Once, perhaps a year before you and Percy arrived, a young man washed ashore. He was half mad from thirst and heat. He'd been drifting at sea for days. His words didn't make much sense, but he said he was a son of Athena."**

"That would be about the time we went on the quest to find the lightning bolt." Percy asked looking confused.

"I don't remember anyone disappearing from my cabin." Annabeth said thougtfully.

"Me neither." Percy said.

**Reyna paused as if waiting for a reaction. Annabeth had no idea who the boy might have been. She wasn't aware of any other Athena kids who had gone on a quest in the Sea of Monsters, but she still had a sense of dread. The light filtering through the grapevines made shadows writhe across the ground like a swarm of bugs.**

**"What happened to this demigod?" she asked.**

**Reyna waved her hand as if this question was trivial. "Circe turned him into a guinea pig, of course. He made quite a crazy little rodent. But before that, he kept raving about his failed quest. He claimed that he'd gone to Rome, following the Mark of Athena."**

"Oh so she turned him into a guinea pig?" Annabeth said as she tried not to laugh. "That sounds familiar."

"Shut up." Percy grumbled as Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Jason, Frank, Hazel, and Reyna laughed.

**Annabeth grabbed the railing to keep her balance.**

**"Yes," Reyna said, seeing her discomfort. "He kept muttering about wisdom's child, the Mark of Athena, and the giants' bane standing pale and gold. The same lines Ella was just reciting. But you say that you've never heard them before today?"**

**"Not-not the way Ella said them." Annabeth's voice was weak. She wasn't lying. She'd never heard that prophecy, but her mother had charged her with following the Mark of Athena; and as she thought about the coin in her pocket, a horrible suspicion began taking root in her mind. She remembered her mother's scathing words. She thought about the strange nightmares she'd been having lately. "Did this demigod–did he explain his quest?"**

Every single person that was reading the book tried not to stare at Annabeth. Most of them without success.

**Reyna shook her head. "At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about. Much later, when I became praetor of Camp Jupiter, I began to suspect."**

**"Suspect...what?"**

**"There is an old legend that the praetors of Camp Jupiter have passed down through the centuries. If it's true, it may explain why our two groups of demigods have never been able to work together. It may be the cause of our animosity. Until this old score is finally settled, so the legend goes, Romans and Greeks will never be at peace. And the legend centers on Athena–"**

**A shrill sound pierced the air. Light flashed in the corner of Annabeth's eye.**

**She turned in time to see an explosion blast a new crater in the forum. A burning couch tumbled through the air. Demigods scattered in panic.**

Annabeth whipped her head around. "We have to prepare! something's going to attack!"

Reyna looked like she wanted to prepare too. "Wait! Let's finish the chapter and see if we could get any clues about what's attacking." Annabeth sighed and reluctantly agreed.

**"Giants?" Annabeth reached for her dagger, which of course wasn't there. "I thought their army was defeated!"**

**"It isn't the giants." Reyna's eyes seethed with rage. "You've betrayed our trust."**

"What? Of course not!" Annabeth yelled.

"Obviously one of you did it!" Reyna snapped.

"Keep reading! I promise none of us did this!" Annabeth pleaded. All of the seven looked nervous.

**"What? No!"**

**As soon as she said it, the Argo II launched a second volley. Its port ballista fired a massive spear wreathed in Greek fire, which sailed straight through the broken dome of the Senate House and exploded inside, lighting up the building like a jack-o'-lantern. If anyone had been in there...**

**"Gods, no." A wave of nausea almost made Annabeth's knees buckle. "Reyna, it isn't possible. We'd never do this!"**

**The metal dogs ran to their mistress's side. They snarled at Annabeth but paced uncertainly, as if reluctant to attack.**

**"You're telling the truth," Reyna judged. "Perhaps you were not aware of this treachery, but **_**someone **_**must pay."**

Reyna glared at the Argo II as the book was read.

**Down in the forum, chaos was spreading. Crowds were pushing and shoving. Fistfights were breaking out.**

**"Bloodshed," Reyna siad.**

**"We have to stop it!"**

**Annabeth had a horrible feeling this might be the last time Reyna and she ever acted in agreement, but together they ran down the hill. If weapons had been allowed in the city, Annabeth's friends would have already been dead. The Roman demigods in the forum had coalesced into an angry mob. Some threw plates, food, and rocks at the Argo II, which was pointless, as most of the stuff fell back into the crowd. **

"They aren't the brightest bulbs in the box." Percy whispered to Annabeth, who tried to stifle her laughter.

**Several dozen Romans had surrounded Piper and Jason, who were trying to calm them without much luck. Piper's charmspeak was useless against so many screaming, angry demigods. Jason's forehead was bleeding. His purple cloak had been ripped to shreds. He kept pleading, "I'm on your side!" but his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt didn't help matters–nor did the warship overhead, firing flaming spears into New Rome. One landed nearby and blasted a toga shop to rubble.**

"This sounds terrible." Piper frowned. "I don't understand what's going on."

Jason shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea."

**"Pluto's pauldrons," Reyna cursed. "Look."**

**Armed legionnaires were hurrying toward the forum. Two artillery crews had set up catapults just outside the Pomeranian Line and were preparing to fire at the Argo II.**

**"That'll just make things worse," Annabeth said.**

**"I hate my job," Reyna growled. She rushed off toward the legionnaires, her dogs at her side.**

_**Percy, **_**Annabeth thought, scanning the forum desperately. **_**Where are you?**_

"Of course you looked for Percy first." Leo rolled his eyes.

Annabeth frowned. "What do you expect? He's my boyfriend who I was seperated from for 8 months. Of course I'm looking for him."

**Two Romans tried to grab her. She ducked past them, plunging into the crowd. As if the angry Romans, burning couches, and exploding building weren't confusing enough, hundreds of purple ghosts drifted through the forum, passing straight through the demigods' bodies and wailing incoherently. The fauns had also taken advantage of the chaos. They swarmed the dining tables, grabbing food, plates, and cups. One trotted by Annabeth with his arms full of tacos and an entire pineapple between his teeth.**

**A statue of Terminus exploded into being, right in front of Annabeth. He yelled at her in Latin, no doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker; but she pushed the statue over and kept running.**

**Finally she spotted Percy. He and his friends, Hazel and Frank, were standing in the middle of a fountain as Percy repelled the angry Romans with blasts of water. Percy's toga was in tatters, but he looked unhurt.**

"Thank gods..."Annabeth sighed.

**Annabeth called to him as another explosion rocked the forum. This time the flash of light was directly overhead. One of the Roman catapults had fired, and the Argo II groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull.**

**Annabeth noticed a figure clinging desperately to the rope ladder, trying to climb down. It was Octavian, his robes steaming and his face black with soot.**

**Over by the fountain, Percy blasted the Roman mob with more water. Annabeth ran toward him, ducking a Roman fist and a flying plate of sandwiches.**

**"Annabeth!" Percy called. "What–?"**

**"I don't know!" she yelled.**

**"I'll tell you what!" cried a voice from above. Octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder. "The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has his weapons trained on Rome!" **

As all of the Romans stood up and started getting ready to attack Leo and act out the scene in the book, Reyna stopped them. "Romans! Stand down! We have no physical evidence that Leo did this! Do you want to waste innocent lives on something that can be prevented? No? Then sit down and finish reading the book! If at the end of the book Leo is still guilty we can attack him then."

The Romans sat down while grumbling leaving a shocked Leo with his eyes open. "What am I doing? I don't understand why I'm doing this!"

"Leo, maybe it's a trick. Let's just wait and keep reading, okay?" Jason asked. Leo nodded, still looking shocked.

**Annabeth's chest filled with liquid hydrogen. She felt like she might shatter into a million frozen pieces.**

**"You're lying," she said. "Leo would never–"**

**"I was just there!" Octavian shrieked. "I saw it with my own eyes!"**

All of the Romans glared at Leo, who looked down guiltily.

Piper slapped him. "Leo stop! You didn't even do this, so until you actually do this don't beat yourself up about it!"

**The Argo II returned fire. Legionnaires on the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters.**

**"You see?" Octavian screamed. "Romans, kill the invaders!"**

**Annabeth growled in frustration. There was no time for anyone to figure out the truth. The crew from Camp Half-Blood was outnumbered a hundred to one, and even if Octavian had managed to stage some sort of trick (which she thought likely), they'd never be able to convince the Romans before they were overrun and killed.**

**"We have to leave," she told Percy. "**_**Now."**_

**He nodded grimly. "Hazel, Frank, you've got to make a choice. Are you coming?"**

Hazel and Frank looked shocked. "Of course! Is it even a question?"

**Hazel looked terrified, but she donned her cavalry helmet. "Of course we are. But you'll never make it to the ship unless we buy you some time."**

**"How?"Annabeth asked.**

**Hazel whistled. Instantly a blur of beige shot across the forum. A majestic horse materialized next to the fountain. He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob. Hazel climbed on his back like she'd been born to ride. Strapped to the horse's saddle was a Roman cavalry sword.**

**Hazel unsheather her golden blade. "Send me an Iris-message when you're safely away, and we'll rendezvous," she said. "Arion, ride!"**

**The horse zipped through the crowd with incredible speed, pushing back Romans and causing mass panic.**

"Fastest horse there is." Hazel said proudly.

**Annabeth felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe they could make it out of here alive. Then, from halfway across the forum, she heard Jason shouting.**

**"Romans!" he cried. "Please!"**

**He and Piper were being pelted with plates and stones. Jason tried to shield Piper, but a brick caught him above the eye. He crumpled, and the crowd surged forward.**

Piper immedietely glared at the Romans as she tried to figure out who did that to Jason. When she finally realized she wouldn't be able to figure it out she turned to Jason and grabbed his hand, letting him know that she wouldn't let that happen again. Reyna was also worried, but she refused to let her body show it. _If he doesn't need me, I don't need him._

**"Get back!" Piper screamed. Her charmspeak rolled over the mob, making them hesitate, but Annabeth knew the effect wouldn't last. Percy and she couldn't possibly reach them in time to help.**

**"Frank," Percy said, "it's up to you. Can you help them?"**

**Annabeth didn't understand how Frank could do that all by himself, but he swallowed nervously.**

**"Oh, gods," he murmured. "Okay, sure. Just get up the ropes. Now."**

"I understand now though." Annabeth smiled.

**Percy and Annabeth lunged for the ladder. Octavian was still clinging to the bottom, but Percy yanked him off and threw him into the mob.**

**They began to climb as armed legionnaires flooded into the forum. Arrows whistled past Annabeth's head. An explosion almost knocked her off her ladder. Halfway up, she heard a roar below and glanced down.**

**Romans screamed and scattered as a full-sized dragon charged through the forum–a beast even scarier than the bronze dragon figurehead on the Argo II. It had rough gray skin like a Komodo lizard's and leathery bat wings. Arrows and rocks bounced harmlessly off its hide as it lumbered toward Piper and Jason, grabbed them with its front claws, and vaulted into the air.**

**"Is that...?" Annabeth couldn't even put the thought into words.**

**"Frank," Percy confirmed, a few feet above her. "He has a few special talents."**

Many of the Romans looked amazed, even though most of him has seen Frank's "special talent" during the battle.

**"Understatement," Annabeth muttered. "Keep climbing!"**

**Without the dragon and Hazel's horse to distract the archers, they never would have made it up the ladder; but finally they climbed past a row of broken aerial oars and onto the deck. The rigging was on fire. The foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard.**

**There was no sign of Coach Hedge, but Leo stood amidships, calmly reloading the ballista. Annabeth's gut twisted in horrow.**

"That's proof!" Octavian screamed.

"I said we will wait until the end of the book to make any judgements." Reyna commanded.

**"Leo!" she screamed. "What are you doing?"**

**"Destroy them..." He faced Annabeth. His eyes were glazed. His movements were like a robot's. "Destroy them all."**

**He turned back to the ballista, but Percy tackled him. Leo's head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites showed.**

**The gray dragon soared into view. It circled the ship once and landed at the bow, depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed.**

**"Go!" Percy yelled. "Get us out of here!"**

**With a shock, Annabeth realized he was talking to her.**

**She ran for the helm. She made the mistake of glancing over the rail and saw armed legionnaires closing ranks in the forum, preparing flaming arrows. Hazel spurred Arion, and they raced out of the city with a mob chasing after them. More catapults wre being wheeled into range. All along the Pomerian Line, the statues of Terminus were glowing purple, as if building up enough energy for some kind of attack.**

"Hurry." Annabeth whispered to her book-self.

**Annabeth looked over the controls. She cursed Leo for making them so complicated. No time for fancy maneuvers, but she did know one basic command: **_**Up. **_

**She grabbed the aviation throttle and yanked it straight back. The ship groaned. The bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. The mooring lines snapped, and the Argo II shot into the clouds.**

"Who's reading next?" Reyna asked.

"I will." Leo volunteered.

**A/N: The Question of the Chapter is: What are Annabeth mortal family's names?**


	6. Leo V

**A/N:The correct answer was she has no name. Some people said Helen. If you have any proof for that message me and I will add that as an answer. The first person to answer the question correctly was she was first, I reviewed one of her stories. I am so sorry I haven't updated this story! I have so much going on in my life and I have barely left my bed in a week because I'm sick, so sorry about that and I'll try to update more often.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or anything in the bold. They belong to Rick Riordan.**

**'Leo V,' **Leo read before frowning. "I don't want to read my thoughts."

"I had to do it, you can too." Annabeth said.

**Leo wished he could invent a time machine. He'd go back two hours and undo what had happened. Either that, or he could invent a Slap-Leo-in-the-Face machine to punish himself, though he doubted it would hurt as badly as the look Annabeth was giving him.**

"I know how that feels." Percy winced. "I'm very familiar with Annabeth's looks."

**"One more time," she said. "Exactly what happened?"**

**Leo slumped against the mast. His head still throbbed from hitting the deck. All around him, his beautiful new ship was in shambles. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling. The foresail was tattered. The satellite array that powered the onboard internet and TV was blown to bits, which had really made Coach Hedge mad. **

"That would be what made Coach Hedge mad." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**Their bronze dragon figurehead, Festus, was coughing up smoke like he had a hairball, and Leo could tell from the groaning sounds on the port side that some of the aerial oars had been knocked out of alignment or broken off completely, which explained why the ship was listing and shuddering as it flew, the engine wheezing like an asthmatic steam train.**

**He choked back a sob. "I don't know. It's fuzzy."**

**Too many people were looking at him: Annabeth (Leo **_**hated **_**to make her angry; that girl scared him), Coach Hedge with his furry goat legs, his orange polo shirt, and his baseball bat (did he have to carry that everywhere?), and the newcomer, Frank.**

Leo frowned, how was he supposed to concentrate with everyone staring at him?

**Leo wasn't sure what to make of Frank. He looked like a baby sumo wrestler, though Leo wasn't stupid enough to say that aloud.**

"I don't look like a baby sumo wrestler." Frank said.

Hazel smiled. "Of course not."

**Leo's memory was hazy, but while he'd been half conscious, he was pretty sure he'd seen a dragon land on the ship–a dragon that had turned into Frank.**

"That would be correct." Piper shook her head.

**Annabeth crossed her arms. "You mean you don't remember?"**

**"I..." Leo felt like he was trying to swallow a marble. "I remember, but it's like I was watching myself do things. I couldn't control it."**

"See," Annabeth said. "He obviously didn't bomb Camp Jupiter on purpose. If you guys assume the worst and don't trust us, then Gaea's going to win and we will all die. We have to learn to trust each other and get along."

Many of the Romans looked down ashamed, but none of them apologized. They were too proud to admit they were wrong.

**Coach Hedge tapped his bet against the deck. In his gym clothes, with his cap pulled over his horns, he looked just like he used to at the Wilderness School, where he'd spent a year undercover as Jason, Piper, and Leo's P.E. teacher. The way the old satyr was glowering, Leo almost wondered if the coach was going to order him to do push-ups.**

"Fifty if you want to go the bathroom." Piper grimaced. "Man, remember how tough he was on us?"

"Oh, I definitely remember." Leo nodded.

**"Look, kid," Hedge said, "you blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match."**

Many people laughed, but Jason frowned. "This is the adult that Chiron is using as a chaperone?"

"**Coach," Annabeth said, "why don't you make sure all the fires are out?"**

"**But I already did that."**

"**Do it again."**

**The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Even Hedge wasn't crazy enough to defy Annabeth.**

"Wow, even he listens to Annabeth." Percy laughed. "I can't blame him though, she is pretty terrifying."

"I am _not _terrifying." Annabeth frowned.

"Not to me." Percy smiled before pecking her on the lips. After Percy turned away Annabeth blushed.

**She knelt next to Leo. Her gray eyes were as steely as ball bearings. Her blond hair fell loose around her shoulders, but Leo didn't find that attractive. **

"Wow, thanks." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I'm not calling you ugly!" Leo quickly yelled. "It's just that it's intimidating."

"She's definitely not ugly." Percy agreed. "She's the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen!"

"Stop being so cheesy Seaweed-Brain." Annabeth said as she turned red, making Percy smile.

**He had no idea where the stereotype of dumb giggly blondes came from. Ever since he'd met Annabeth at the Grand Canyon last winter, when she'd marched toward him with that Give me Percy Jackson or I'll kill you expression, Leo thought of blondes as much too smart and much too dangerous.**

"Good, I hate when people underestimate me." Annabeth smiled.

"**Leo," she said calmly, "did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or—"**

"**No." Leo could have lied and blamed that stupid Roman, but he didn't want to make a bad situation worse.**

"See, I'm being good!" Leo told the Romans.

"**The guy was a jerk, but he didn't fire on the camp. I did."**

**The new kid, Frank, scowled. "On purpose?"**

"**No!" Leo squeezed his eyes shut. "Well, yes … I mean, I didn't want to. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it. There was this cold feeling inside me—"**

Everyone looked at Annabeth, making her feel uncomfortable.

"**A cold feeling." Annabeth's tone changed. She sounded almost … scared.**

"**Yeah," Leo said. "Why?"**

**From belowdecks, Percy called up, "Annabeth, we need you."**

**Oh, gods, Leo thought. Please let Jason be okay.**

"Jason will be okay right?" Piper asked worriedly.

"He should be." Annabeth nodded.

"I'll be fine." Jason said as he pulled Piper toward him. "I pinky swear."

Piper crossed her pinky in his. "You know you can't break a pinky promise right?"

"Of course you can't break a pinky promise!" Jason gasped in shock. "It's the most solemn of promises!"

As Piper laughed and Jason smiled nobody noticed Reyna frown as she thought of how every time she fell for a guy, he fell for someone else. It was like dominoes.

**As soon as they'd gotten on board, Piper had taken Jason below. The cut on his head had looked pretty bad. Leo had known Jason longer than anyone at Camp Half-Blood. **

"Excuse me." Piper frowned. "Are you forgetting someone?"

"Oh, yeah." Leo said. "I did know you before Jason, didn't I?"

"Yep."

**They were best friends. If Jason didn't make it …**

"**He'll be fine." Annabeth's expression softened. "Frank, I'll be back. Just … watch Leo. Please."**

**Frank nodded.**

**If it was possible for Leo to feel worse, he did. Annabeth now trusted a Roman demigod she'd known for like, three seconds, more than she trusted Leo.**

"I trust Percy more than I trust anyone else, and if Percy trusts Frank then Frank must be a good guy." Annabeth explained. "Besides that's just my book self. My normal self right now trusts Frank because I already knew him from when we read the other book."

"Still." Leo shrugged.

**Once she was gone, Leo and Frank stared at each other. The big dude looked pretty odd in his bedsheet toga, with his gray pullover hoodie and jeans, and a bow and quiver from the ship's armory slung over his shoulder. Leo remembered the time he had met the Hunters of Artemis—a bunch of cute lithe girls in silvery clothes, all armed with bows. He imagined Frank frolicking along with them. The idea was so ridiculous, it almost made him feel better.**

"Just because I have a silver bow and quiver doesn't mean I belong with the Hunters." Frank pointed out.

"I know." Leo smiled. "I think my book self is just trying to make himself feel better."

"Besides, they would never let a boy join them." Jason said. "Most of them hate boys."

"Thalia doesn't hate all boys." Percy said. "She doesn't hate me, and I'm guessing she doesn't hate you either."

"That's true." Jason agreed.

"**So," Frank said. "Your name isn't Sammy?"**

**Leo scowled. "What kind of question is that?"**

"I understand now." Leo glanced at Hazel. "I think we should talk about this Sammy thing."

Hazel bit her lip. "I think we should too. After this chapter?"

Leo nodded as he tried to think of what to say.

"**Nothing," Frank said quickly. "I just— Nothing. About the firing on the camp … Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn't want the Romans getting along with you guys."**

"I would never fire on my own camp!" Octavian yelled.

"Octavian. Nothing you say now can change what is written in the book, so do everyone a favor and keep your comments to yourself." Reyna said sternly.

Leo smiled at Frank gratefully, "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I'm almost positive Octavian had nothing to do with it."

**Leo wanted to believe that. He was grateful to this kid for not hating him. But he knew it hadn't been Octavian. Leo had walked to a ballista and started firing. Part of him had known it was wrong. He'd asked himself: What the heck am I doing? But he'd done it anyway. **

**Maybe he was going crazy. The stress of all those months working on the Argo II might've finally made him crack.**

"You did work extremely hard, but I know you aren't crazy." Jason patted Leo on the back. "Whatever happened with you isn't your fault."

**But he couldn't think about that. He needed to do something productive. His hands needed to be busy.**

"**Look," he said, "I should talk to Festus and get a damage report. You mind …?"**

"Festus?" Reyna asked.

"I'm sure the book will explain." Leo answered.

**Frank helped him up. "Who is Festus?"**

"**My friend," Leo said. "His name isn't Sammy either, in case you're wondering.**

**Come on. I'll introduce you."**

**Fortunately the bronze dragon wasn't damaged. Well, aside from the fact that last winter he'd lost everything except his head—but Leo didn't count that.**

"I'd count that as damage." Hazel said. "Why don't you count that as damage?"

"I don't know. I just never thought of him as being damaged." Leo shrugged.

**When they reached the bow of the ship, the figurehead turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look at them. Frank yelped and backed away.**

"**It's alive!" he said.**

"You make it sound like a monster." Leo laughed.

**Leo would have laughed if he hadn't felt so bad. "Yeah. Frank, this is Festus. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but we had an accident."**

"**You have a lot of accidents," Frank noted.**

"**Well, some of us can't turn into dragons, so we have to build our own."**

"Still not fair." Percy muttered.

**Leo arched his eyebrows at Frank. "Anyway, I revived him as a figurehead. He's kind of the ship's main interface now. How are things looking, Festus?"**

**Festus snorted smoke and made a series of squeaking, whirring sounds. Over the last few months, Leo had learned to interpret this machine language. Other demigods could understand Latin and Greek. Leo could speak Creak and Squeak.**

Percy laughed. "That could actually be very useful."

"**Ugh," Leo said. "Could be worse, but the hull is compromised in several places. The port aerial oars have to be fixed before we can go full speed again. We'll need some repair materials: Celestial bronze, tar, lime—"**

"**What do you need limes for?"**

"No, lime. It's calcium carbonate, and often used in cement-"

"Annabeth, no offense but I don't think anybody really wants to know." Percy whispered.

"Right." Annabeth blushed.

"Hey, that was actually interesting." Leo frowned.

"**Dude, lime. Calcium carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other— Ah, never mind. The point is, this ship isn't going far unless we can fix it."**

"Ah! I'm turning into Annabeth!" Leo screamed.

"What's wrong with me?" she demanded.

"Nothing, it's just that I don't want to be that smart!" Leo explained. "It's a personal preferance."

**Festus made another click-creak noise that Leo didn't recognize. It sounded like AY-zuhl.**

"**Oh … Hazel," he deciphered. "That's the girl with the curly hair, right?"**

Hazel nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

**Frank gulped. "Is she okay?"**

"**Yeah, she's fine," Leo said. "According to Festus, her horse is racing along below. She's following us."**

"**We've got to land, then," Frank said.**

**Leo studied him. "She's your girlfriend?"**

**Frank chewed his lip. "Yes."**

"**You don't sound sure."**

"You better be sure." Hazel glared.

"I'm definitely sure." Frank nodded.

"Good." Hazel smiled and held Frank's hand.

"**Yes. Yes, definitely. I'm sure."**

**Leo raised his hands. "Okay, fine. The problem is we can only manage one landing. The way the hull and the oars are, we won't be able to lift off again until we repair, so we'll have to make sure we land somewhere with all the right supplies."**

**Frank scratched his head. "Where do you get Celestial bronze? You can't just stock up at Home Depot."**

"**Festus, do a scan."**

"He can scan for Celestial Bronze? That's impressive." Reyna nodded.

"**He can scan for magic bronze?" Frank marveled. "Is there anything he can't do?"**

**Leo thought: You should've seen him when he had a body. But he didn't say that. It was too painful, remembering the way Festus used to be. Leo peered over the ship's bow. The Central California valley was passing below. Leo didn't hold out much hope that they could find what they needed all in one place, but they had to try. Leo also wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and New Rome. The Argo II could cover vast distances pretty quickly, thanks to its magical engine, but Leo figured the Romans had magic travel methods of their own.**

**Behind him, the stairs creaked. Percy and Annabeth climbed up, their faces grim.**

**Leo's heart stumbled. "Is Jason—?"**

Piper looked at Jason fearfully and gripped his hand even tighter.

"**He's resting," Annabeth said. "Piper's keeping an eye on him, but he should be fine."**

"Good, I didn't want you to break your pinky promise." Piper sighed.

"I told you I wouldn't."

**Percy gave him a hard look. "Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"**

"**Man, I—I don't understand how it happened. I'm so sorry—"**

"**Sorry?" Percy growled.**

"Do you know how scary you are when you do that?" Annabeth asked.

"Scary?" Percy asked cluelessly.

"Never mind." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**Annabeth put a hand on her boyfriend's chest. "We'll figure it out later. Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What's the situation with the ship?"**

**Leo's legs trembled. The way Percy had looked at him made him feel the same as when Jason summoned lightning. Leo's skin tingled, and every instinct in his body screamed, Duck!**

"Sorry about that. I didn't know I could scare people just by looking at them." Percy frowned. "I should probably watch that."

**He told Annabeth about the damage and the supplies they needed. At least he felt better talking about something fixable.**

**He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.**

"**Perfect." Leo sighed with relief.**

"**What's perfect?" Annabeth said. "I could use some perfect about now."**

**Leo managed a smile. "Everything we need in one place.**

"That seems a little too perfect." Annabeth frowned. "Usually too perfect means a god or goddess wants to talk to someone on the quest, Leo. You better watch out."

"Okay." Leo said.

**Frank, why don't you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your girlfriend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah."**

**Once they got there, it wasn't a pretty landing. With the oars damaged and the foresail torn, Leo could barely manage a controlled descent. The others strapped themselves in below—except for Coach Hedge, who insisted on clinging to the forward rail, yelling, "YEAH! Bring it on, lake!"**

"He's insane." One of the Romans said in shock. "Absoulutely insane."

**Leo stood astern, alone at the helm, and aimed as best he could.**

**Festus creaked and whirred warning signals, which were relayed through the intercom to the quarterdeck.**

"**I know, I know," Leo said, gritting his teeth. He didn't have much time to take in the scenery. To the southeast, a city was nestled in the foothills of a mountain range, blue and purple in the afternoon shadows. A flat desert landscape spread to the south. Directly beneath them the Great Salt Lake glittered like aluminum foil, the shoreline etched with white salt marshes that reminded Leo of aerial photos of Mars.**

"**Hang on, Coach!" he shouted. "This is going to hurt."**

"**I was born for hurt!"**

"I'm seriously starting to think that maybe he was born for hurt." Leo shook his head.

**WHOOM! A swell of salt water washed over the bow, dousing Coach Hedge. The Argo II listed dangerously to starboard, then righted itself and rocked on the surface of the lake. Machinery hummed as the aerial blades that were still working changed to nautical form. Three banks of robotic oars dipped into the water and began moving them forward.**

"**Good job, Festus," Leo said. "Take us toward the south shore."**

"**Yeah!" Coach Hedge pumped his fists in the air. He was drenched from his horns to hooves, but grinning like a crazy goat. "Do it again!"**

"**Uh … maybe later," Leo said. "Just stay above deck, okay? You can keep watch, in case—you know, the lake decides to attack us or something."**

"With our luck, it just might." Annabeth sighed.

"**On it," Hedge promised.**

**Leo rang the All clear bell and headed for the stairs. Before he got there, a loud clump-clump-clump shook the hull. A tan stallion appeared on deck with Hazel Levesque on his back.**

"**How—?" Leo's question died in his throat. "We're in the middle of a lake! Can that thing fly?"**

**The horse whinnied angrily.**

"**Arion can't fly," Hazel said. "But he can run across just about anything. Water, vertical surfaces, small mountains—none of that bothers him."**

"Cool." A roman smiled.

"**Oh."**

**Hazel was looking at him strangely, the way she had during the feast in the forum—like she was searching for something in his face. He was tempted to ask if they had met before, but he was sure they hadn't. He would remember a pretty girl paying such close attention to him. That didn't happen a lot. She's Frank's girlfriend, he reminded himself.**

Leo looked confused. "Um, no offense but I don't even like Hazel."

"I think our book-selves are kind of in an alternate universe, where certain things that haven't happened yet effect how we fel in the future, so something must happen in the future that makes you like Hazel." Annabeth explained.

"Oh."

**Frank was still below, but Leo almost wished the big guy would come up the stairs. The way Hazel was studying Leo made him feel uneasy and self-conscious.**

**Coach Hedge crept forward with his baseball bat, eyeing the magic horse suspiciously. "Valdez, does this count as an invasion?"**

"No!" Hazel protested.

"**No!" Leo said. "Um, Hazel, you'd better come with me. I built a stable belowdecks, if Arion wants to—"**

"**He's more of a free spirit." Hazel slipped out of the saddle. "He'll graze around the lake until I call him. But I want to see the ship. Lead the way."**

**The Argo II was designed like an ancient trireme, only twice as big. The first deck had one central corridor with crew cabins on either side. On a normal trireme, most of the space would've been taken up with three rows of benches for a few hundred sweaty guys to do the manual labor, but Leo's oars were automated and retractable, so they took up very little room inside the hull.**

"I didn't think you guys would want to row the boat." Leo shrugged.

"There's other things that are more important." Percy agreed.

**The ship's power came from the engine room on the second and lowest deck, which also housed sickbay, storage, and the stables. Leo led the way down the hall. He'd built the ship with eight cabins—seven for the demigods of the prophecy, and a room for Coach Hedge (Seriously—Chiron considered him a responsible adult chaperone?).**

"Exactly!" Leo agreed.

"Leo just because your book-self agrees doesn't mean it's true." Annabeth pointed out.

**At the stern was a large mess hall/lounge, which was where Leo headed.**

**On the way, they passed Jason's room. The door was open. Piper sat at the side of his berth, holding Jason's hand while he snored with an ice pack on his head. Piper glanced at Leo. She held a finger to her lips for quiet, but she didn't look angry. That was something. Leo tried to force down his guilt, and they kept walking. When they reached the mess hall, they found the others—Percy, Annabeth, and Frank—sitting dejectedly around the dining table.**

**Leo had made the lounge as nice as possible, since he figured they'd be spending a lot of time there. The cupboard was lined with magic cups and plates from Camp Half-Blood, which would fill up with whatever food or drink you wanted on command.**

Percy smiled, "I miss those cups. Hey, Annabeth, remember when Connor tried to fill the cup with vodka?"

"When he got turned into a bush for an hour? Even Dionyus was laughing." Annabeth laughed.

**There was also a magical ice chest with canned drinks, perfect for picnics ashore. The chairs were cushy recliners with thousand-finger massage, built-in headphones, and sword and drink holders for all your demigod kicking-back needs.**

**There were no windows, but the walls were enchanted to show real-time footage from Camp Half-Blood—the beach, the forest, the strawberry fields—although now Leo was wondering if this made people homesick rather than happy.**

"Probably both." Percy answered.

**Percy was staring longingly at a sunset view of Half-Blood Hill, where the Golden Fleece glittered in the branches of the tall pine tree.**

"I haven't been there in so long." Percy groaned.

"**So we've landed," Percy said. "What now?"**

**Frank plucked on his bowstring. "Figure out the prophecy? I mean … that was a prophecy Ella spoke, right? From the Sibylline Books?"**

"I knew it!" Octavian yelled. "I knew it! Where is she? She must share her information!"

"No!" Percy yelled. "You can't hurt her."

"If she refuses to give information-"

"That's her own choice, you can't be mad at her for that." Hazel argued.

"If you touch her you will regret it." Frank threatened Octavain.

"**The what?" Leo asked.**

**Frank explained how their harpy friend was freakishly good at memorizing books. At some point in the past, she'd inhaled a collection of ancient prophecies that had supposedly been destroyed around the fall of Rome.**

"**That's why you didn't tell the Romans," Leo guessed. "You didn't want them to get hold of her."**

**Percy kept staring at the image of Half-Blood Hill. "Ella's sensitive. She was a captive when we found her. I just didn't want …" He made a fist. "It doesn't matter now. I sent Tyson an Iris-message, told him to take Ella to Camp Half-Blood. They'll be safe there."**

"I'm not so sure about that." Leo frowned.

**Leo doubted that any of them would be safe, now that he had stirred up a camp of angry Romans on top of the problems they already had with Gaea and the giants; but he kept quiet.**

**Annabeth laced her fingers. "Let me think about the prophecy—but right now we have more immediate problems. We have to get this ship fixed. Leo, what do we need?"**

"**The easiest thing is tar." Leo was glad to change the subject. "We can get that in the city, at a roofing-supply store or someplace like that. Also, Celestial bronze and lime. According to Festus, we can find both of those on an island in the lake, just west of here."**

"**We'll have to hurry," Hazel warned. "If I know Octavian, he's searching for us with his auguries. The Romans will send a strike force after us. It's a matter of honor."**

**Leo felt everyone's eyes on him. "Guys … I don't know what happened. Honestly, I—"**

"Nobody will blame you once they understand." Frank said.

**Annabeth raised her hand. "We've been talking. We agree it couldn't have been you, Leo. That cold feeling you mentioned … I felt it too. It must have been some sort of magic, either Octavian or Gaea or one of her minions. But until we understand what happened —"**

**Frank grunted. "How can we be sure it won't happen again?"**

**Leo's fingers heated up like they were about to catch fire. One of his powers as a son of Hephaestus was that he could summon flames at will; but he had to be careful not to do so by accident, especially on a ship filled with explosives and flammable supplies.**

"**I'm fine now," he insisted, though he wished he could be sure. "Maybe we should use the buddy system. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We can leave Piper and Coach Hedge on board with Jason. Send one team into town to get tar. Another team can go after the bronze and the lime."**

"Split up? That sounds like it could cause problems." Percy said.

"It's our only choice." Annabeth sighed.

"**Split up?" Percy said. "That sounds like a really bad idea."**

"**It'll be quicker," Hazel put in. "Besides, there's a reason a quest is usually limited to three demigods, right?"**

**Annabeth raised her eyebrows, as if reappraising Hazel's merits.**

"You doubted me?" Hazel frowned.

"My book-self doesn't know you." Annabeth shrugged. "She hasn't formed an opinion yet."

"**You're right. The same reason we needed the Argo II … outside camp, seven demigods in one place will attract way too much monstrous attention. The ship is designed to conceal and protect us. We should be safe enough on board; but if we go on expeditions, we shouldn't travel in groups larger than three. No sense alerting more of Gaea's minions than we have to."**

**Percy still didn't look happy about it, but he took Annabeth's hand. "As long as you're my buddy, I'm good."**

"That is _so _sweet!" Gwen smiled.

**Hazel smiled. "Oh, that's easy. Frank, you were amazing, turning into a dragon! Could you do it again to fly Annabeth and Percy into town for the tar?"**

**Frank opened his mouth like he wanted to protest. "I … I suppose. But what about you?"**

"**I'll ride Arion with Sa—with Leo, here." She fidgeted with her sword hilt, which made Leo uneasy. She had even more nervous energy than he did. "We'll get the bronze and the lime. We can all meet back here by dark."**

"I hope you get used to calling me Leo." Leo sighed.

"I will." Hazel said.

**Frank scowled. Obviously, he didn't like the idea of Leo going off with Hazel. For some reason, Frank's disapproval made Leo want to go. He had to prove he was trustworthy. He wasn't going to fire any random ballistae again.**

"**Leo," said Annabeth, "if we get the supplies, how long to fix the ship?"**

"**With luck, just a few hours."**

"**Fine," she decided. "We'll meet you back here as soon as possible, but stay safe. We could use some good luck. That doesn't mean we'll get it."**

"I think we should take a break and eat." Reyna suggested.

"Good idea." Annabeth agreed as Percy pulled her to her feet.

**A/N: The next chapter will not be a reading chapter! That doesn't happen often. It usually only happens when something needs to be talked about between two characters. If you don't like break chapters then you probably shouldn't read the next chapter. Question of the chapter: Which hunter did Connor and Travis give the poisoned shirt to in The Titan's Curse?**


	7. Break 1

**A/N: Oops! For the last chapter I meant to say the correct answer was Frederick, Bobby, Matthew, and her step-mom had no name. Sorry about that. The answer was Phoebe. The first person to guess correctly was Child of Eos. I reviewed her story as a reward. I was actually already reading it before, and I recommend it if you like my story. It was another Reading the Mark of Athena story. This chapter will be extremely short. The only reason I'm writing a break chapter is because I wanted Hazel and Leo to talk. If you like Harry Potter go to youtube and watch the video "Tribute to the Dead Harry Potter Characters." I think the channel that posted it was nobodysinksmyship. I watched it like ten minutes ago and I'm still crying. It has almost no views. I found it completely by accident and I think whoever created it is a genius.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the bold or the characters.**

As everyone sat down at different tables and started laughing and chatting Hazel pulled Frank to the side.

"I'm going to go talk to Leo." Hazel informed Frank.

"Are you trying to say you're breaking up with me?" Frank asked worriedly.

"What? No, of course not!" Hazel laughed. "I just need to clear it up that I don't like him."

"Okay." Frank said as he tried to smile. "I'll just be sitting around if you need me."

Hazel nodded in thanks, then walked over to Leo, who was quietly talking to Piper. They both seemed to feel out of place in Camp Jupiter.

"Hey, Leo..I think we need to talk." Hazel said awkwardly.

Leo nodded. "Yeah. I think so too."

Piper waved good-bye as Hazel and Leo walked away from most of the people who were eating.

They sat in silence for almost a minute before they both blurted out at the same time. "I don't like you like that!"

Leo sighed in relief. "Good, no offense or anything but I never even thought about you that way."

"No, I'm glad. I really like Frank." Hazel sighed.

"It's still going to be weird reading the rest of the book." Leo pointed out.

Hazel nodded. "Yeah, but I don't want either of us to think that we have to feel something because our book-self does."

"Yeah. I know what you mean. Whatever our book-selves do shouldn't affect what we do." Leo agreed.

"Well, that's settled." Hazel smiled.

"Cool, I'm going to go back by Piper. I don't want her to be all alone." Leo shrugged.

"I'm going to go talk to Frank." Hazel replied. They both walked in separate directions, glad that they didn't have to fake any feelings they didn't have.

**A/N: I told you it was short! Question of the chapter: Who interrupted Percy and Annabeth when they were hugging in the Athena cabin in the Battle of the Labyrinth?**


	8. Leo VI

**A/N: The correct answer was Malcolm. Congratulations to a1993 who answered the question first. I didn't review their story though because they didn't have any. My "Reading the Son of Neptune" story is so close to 2,000 reviews! If you guys review that story I would be really grateful!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the bold or any of the characters. They belong to Rick Riordan.**

"**Leo VI," **Gwen read.

**Riding Arion was the best thing that had happened to Leo all day—which wasn't saying much, since his day had sucked.**

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure anything half decent that happens to me will be the best thing that happens to me all day." Leo sighed.

**The horse's hooves turned the surface of the lake to salty mist. Leo put his hand against the horse's side and felt the muscles working like a well-oiled machine. For the first time, he understood why car engines were measured in horsepower. Arion was a four-legged Maserati.**

**Ahead of them lay an island—a line of sand so white, it might have been pure table salt. Behind that rose an expanse of grassy dunes and weathered boulders.**

**Leo sat behind Hazel, one arm around her waist. The close contact made him a little uncomfortable, but it was the only way he could stay on board (or whatever you called it with a horse).**

Frank glared at Leo making Leo put his hands up in surrender, "Hey, I don't like your girlfriend."

"It sounds like you do." Frank pointed out.

"That isn't me." Leo protested. "Even if my book-self does like Hazel, I don't. You don't need to worry."

"Fine," Frank sighed. "I trust you. I guess we need to trust each other if we're going on this quest together."

"Cool," Leo grinned. "So can we just try to ignore anything my book-self may mention about Hazel?"

"I'll try." Frank agreed.

**Before they left, Percy had pulled him aside to tell him Hazel's story. Percy made it sound like he was just doing Leo a favor, but there'd been an undertone like If you mess with my friend, I will personally feed you to a great white shark.**

"Percy, I can watch out for myself you know." Hazel pointed out.

"I was just informing him of your situation." Percy grinned. "It's perfectly harmless."

**According to Percy, Hazel was a daughter of Pluto. She'd died in the 1940s and been brought back to life only a few months ago.**

Many of the Romans looked at Hazel with a disgusted look on their face.

"Your dead?" Octavian winced.

"I'm not dead. I _was _dead. Hazel explained. "Serioiusly, I'm not a zombie or anything."

"You can't be here, it isn't right." One of the Romans said.

"I'm just like Gwen." Hazel said. "It doesn't matter anyway because we can't make any decisions until the end of the book."

"She's right." Reyna said. "Continue reading."

**Leo found that hard to believe. Hazel seemed warm and very alive, not like the ghosts or the other reborn mortals Leo had tangled with.**

**She seemed good with people, too, unlike Leo, who was much more comfortable with machines. Living stuff, like horses and girls? He had no idea what made them work.**

Most of the girls rolled their eyes at Leo.

**Hazel was also Frank's girlfriend, so Leo knew he should keep his distance. Still, her hair smelled good, and riding with her made his heart race almost against his will. It must've been the speed of the horse.**

Frank glared at Leo, but tried not to say anything as he remembered that Leo didn't like her now.

**Arion thundered onto the beach. He stomped his hooves and whinnied triumphantly, like Coach Hedge yelling a battle cry. Hazel and Leo dismounted. Arion pawed the sand.**

"**He needs to eat," Hazel explained. "He likes gold, but—"**

"Gold? Where do you get gold?" Reyna asked.

Hazel shrugged. "It's a long story."

"**Gold?" Leo asked.**

"**He'll settle for grass. Go on, Arion. Thanks for the ride. I'll call you." Just like that, the horse was gone—nothing left but a steaming trail across the lake.**

"**Fast horse," Leo said, "and expensive to feed."**

"**Not really," Hazel said. "Gold is easy for me."**

Many people looked at Hazel questioningly, but she just looked pointedly at the book in Gwen's hands.

**Leo raised his eyebrows. "How is gold easy? Please tell me you're not related to King Midas. I don't like that guy."**

"You met him?" Percy asked.

"Yeah. He wasn't very nice." Jason sighed.

"Impressive." Percy nodded.

**Hazel pursed her lips, as if she regretted raising the subject. "Never mind."**

**That made Leo even more curious, but he decided it might be better not to press her. He knelt and cupped a handful of white sand. "Well…one problem solved, anyway. This is lime."**

"How do you know that?" Hazel asked.

"Oh, it's easy to tell the differance between sand and lime." Leo replied.

**Hazel frowned. "The whole beach?"**

"**Yeah. See? The granules are perfectly round. It's not really sand. It's calcium carbonate." Leo pulled a Ziploc bag from his tool belt and dug his hand into the lime.**

**Suddenly he froze. He remembered all the times the earth goddess Gaea had appeared to him in the ground—her sleeping face made of dust or sand or dirt. She loved to taunt him. He imagined her closed eyes and her dreaming smile swirling in the white calcium.**

"Does she talk to all of you guys?" a young girl asked Percy, who was sitting near her.

"I think she's talked to all of us at least once." Percy answered.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she frowned.

"Yeah, me too." Percy said under his breath.

**Walk away, little hero, Gaea said. Without you, the ship cannot be fixed.**

"**Leo?" Hazel asked. "You okay?"**

**He took a shaky breath. Gaea wasn't here. He was just freaking himself out.**

"**Yeah," he said. "Yeah, fine." He started to fill the bag.**

**Hazel knelt next to him and helped. "We should've brought a pail and shovels."**

**The idea cheered Leo up. He even smiled. "We could've made a sand castle."**

"**A lime castle."**

**Their eyes locked for a second too long.**

Hazel saw Frank go to say something so she stopped him before she could. "Frank! I like you! Not Leo. You have nothing to worry about."

Frank took a deep breath and nodded.

**Hazel looked away. "You are so much like—"**

"**Sammy?" Leo guessed.**

**She fell backward. "You know?"**

"**I have no idea who Sammy is. But Frank asked me if I was sure that wasn't my name."**

"**And … it isn't?"**

"Obviously not." Leo rolled his eyes.

"**No! Jeez."**

"**You don't have a twin brother or …" Hazel stopped. "Is your family from New Orleans?"**

"**Nah. Houston. Why? Is Sammy a guy you used to know?"**

"**I … It's nothing. You just look like him."**

**Leo could tell she was too embarrassed to say more. But if Hazel was a kid from the past, did that mean Sammy was from the 1940s? If so, how could Frank know the guy?**

"How do you know him?" A son of Venus asked.

"I don't know him. I saw a picture of him." Frank answered.

**And why would Hazel think Leo was Sammy, all these decades later?**

**They finished filling the bag in silence. Leo stuffed it in his tool belt and the bag vanished—no weight, no mass, no volume—though Leo knew it would be there as soon as he reached for it. Anything that could fit into the pockets, Leo could tote around. He loved his tool belt. He just wished the pockets were large enough for a chain saw, or maybe a bazooka.**

Percy laughed. "Dude, that would be awesome!"

"That would be dangerous." Annabeth corrected him.

**He stood and scanned the island—bleach-white dunes, blankets of grass, and boulders encrusted with salt like frosting. "Festus said there was Celestial bronze close by, but I'm not sure where—"**

"**That way." Hazel pointed up the beach. "About five hundred yards."**

"**How do you—?"**

"**Precious metals," Hazel said. "It's a Pluto thing."**

"That's cool." somebody smiled.

**Leo remembered what she'd said about gold being easy. "Handy talent. Lead the way, Miss Metal Detector."**

**The sun began to set. The sky turned a bizarre mix of purple and yellow. In another reality, Leo might've enjoyed a walk on the beach with a pretty girl, but the farther they went, the edgier he felt. Finally Hazel turned inland.**

"**You sure this is a good idea?" he asked.**

"Nope." Hazel shook her head.

"**We're close," she promised. "Come on."**

**Just over the dunes, they saw the woman. She sat on a boulder in the middle of a grassy field. A black-and-chrome motorcycle was parked nearby, but each of the wheels had a big pie slice removed from the spokes and rim, so that they resembled Pac-Men. No way was the bike drivable in that condition.**

"Nemesis!" Annabeth shouted victoriously after pondering her description carefully. "It's Nemesis!"

**The woman had curly black hair and a bony frame. She wore black leather biker's pants, tall leather boots, and a bloodred leather jacket—sort of a Michael Jackson joins the Hell's Angels look. Around her feet, the ground was littered with what looked like broken shells. She was hunched over, pulling new ones out of a sack and cracking them open. Shucking oysters? Leo wasn't sure if there were oysters in the Great Salt Lake. He didn't think so.**

**He wasn't anxious to approach. He'd had bad experiences with strange ladies. His old babysitter, Tía Callida, had turned out to be Hera and had a nasty habit of putting him down for naps in a blazing fireplace.**

"Hera was your babysitter?" Percy asked.

"Yep," Leo answered. "Long story."

"We hear that a lot." somebody whispered to their friend.

**The earth goddess Gaea had killed his mother in a workshop fire when Leo was eight. **

Frank looked at Leo curiously. He knew what it was like to lose your mom.

**The snow goddess Khione had tried to turn him into a frozen dairy treat in Sonoma.**

**But Hazel forged ahead, so he didn't have much choice except to follow.**

**As they got closer, Leo noticed disturbing details. Attached to the woman's belt was a curled whip. Her red-leather jacket had a subtle design to it—twisted branches of an apple tree populated with skeletal birds. The oysters she was shucking were actually fortune cookies.**

"Why is she breaking fortune cookies?" Piper asked.

"Maybe she doesn't like the fortunes." Jason shrugged.

**A pile of broken cookies lay ankle-deep all around her. She kept pulling new ones from her sack, cracking them open, and reading the fortunes. Most she tossed aside. A few made her mutter unhappily. She would swipe her finger over the slip of paper like she was smudging it, then magically reseal the cookie and toss it into a nearby basket.**

"**What are you doing?" Leo asked before he could stop himself. The woman looked up. Leo's lungs filled so fast, he thought they might burst.**

"**Aunt Rosa?" he asked.**

**It didn't make sense, but this woman looked exactly like his aunt. She had the same broad nose with a mole on one side, the same sour mouth and hard eyes. But it couldn't be Rosa. She would never wear clothes like that, and she was still down in Houston, as far as Leo knew. She wouldn't be cracking open fortune cookies in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.**

"**Is that what you see?" the woman asked. "Interesting. And you, Hazel, dear?"**

"**How did you—?" Hazel stepped back in alarm. "You—you look like Mrs. Leer. My third grade teacher. I hated you."**

**The woman cackled. "Excellent. You resented her, eh? She judged you unfairly?"**

"**You—she taped my hands to the desk for misbehaving," Hazel said.**

"Oh.." Annabeth nodded. "she looks like people who you want revenge on."

"That makes sense." Reyna agreed.

"**She called my mother a witch. She blamed me for everything I didn't do and— No. She has to be dead. Who are you?"**

"**Oh, Leo knows," the woman said. "How do you feel about Aunt Rosa, mijo?"**

**Mijo. That's what Leo's mom had always called him. After his mom died, Rosa had rejected Leo. She'd called him a devil child. She'd blamed him for the fire that had killed her sister. Rosa had turned his family against him and left him—a scrawny orphaned eight-year-old—at the mercy of social services. Leo had bounced around from foster home to foster home until he'd finally found a home at Camp Half-Blood. Leo didn't hate many people, but after all these years, Aunt Rosa's face made him boil with resentment.**

Many people looked at Leo sympathetically, but Leo looked away. They didn't understand what he went through, how could they feel sorry for him?

**How did he feel? He wanted to get even. He wanted revenge.**

**His eyes drifted to the motorcycle with the Pac-Man wheels. Where had he seen something like that before? Cabin 16, back at Camp Half-Blood—the symbol above their door was a broken wheel."Nemesis," he said. "You're the goddess of revenge."**

"**You see?" The goddess smiled at Hazel. "He recognizes me."**

**Nemesis cracked another cookie and wrinkled her nose. "You will have great fortune when you least expect it," she read. "That's exactly the sort of nonsense I hate. Someone opens a cookie, and suddenly they have a prophecy that they'll be rich! I blame that tramp Tyche. Always dispensing good luck to people who don't deserve it!"**

"She's changing the fortunes?" Piper asked.

"It sounds like it."

**Leo looked at the mound of broken cookies. "Uh … you know those aren't real prophecies, right? They're just stuffed in the cookies at some factory—"**

"**Don't try to excuse it!" Nemesis snapped. "It's just like Tyche to get people's hopes up. No, no. I must counter her." Nemesis flicked a finger over the slip of paper, and the letters changed to red. "You will die painfully when you most expect it. There! Much better."**

"Will those come true?" somebody gasped.

"I'm not sure." Annabeth cringed.

"**That's horrible!" Hazel said. "You'd let someone read that in their fortune cookie, and it would come true?"**

**Nemesis sneered. It really was creepy, seeing that expression on Aunt Rosa's face. "My dear Hazel, haven't you ever wished horrible things on Mrs. Leer for the way she treated you?"**

"**That doesn't mean I'd want them to come true!"**

"**Bah." The goddess resealed the cookie and tossed it in her basket. "Tyche would be Fortuna for you, I suppose, being Roman. Like the others, she's in a horrible way right now. Me? I'm not affected. I am called Nemesis in both Greek and Roman. I do not change, because revenge is universal."**

"Would that mean that my mom doesn't change either?" Piper asked. "because love is universal too."

"Probably."

"**What are you talking about?" Leo asked. "What are you doing here?"**

**Nemesis opened another cookie. "Lucky numbers. Ridiculous! That's not even a proper fortune!" She crushed the cookie and scattered the pieces around her feet.**

"**To answer your question, Leo Valdez, the gods are in terrible shape. It always happens when a civil war is brewing between you Romans and Greeks. The Olympians are torn between their two natures, called on by both sides. They become quite schizophrenic, I'm afraid. Splitting headaches. Disorientation."**

"That is what's happening to my mom." Annabeth whispered to Percy. "She's torn."

"Then we just need to reunite with the Romans." Percy smiled. "She won't be like that forever."

"**But we're not at war," Leo insisted.**

"**Um, Leo …" Hazel winced. "Except for the fact that you recently blew up large sections of New Rome."**

**Leo stared at her, wondering whose side she was on. "Not on purpose!"**

"**I know …" Hazel said, "but the Romans don't realize that. And they'll be pursuing us in retaliation."**

"I'm glad we won't have to actually go through this." Leo sighed.

"I'm not sure about that. Some of the Romans might still think that this book is a trick to fool them." Annabeth whispered.

**Nemesis cackled. "Leo, listen to the girl. War is coming. Gaea has seen to it, with your help. And can you guess whom the gods blame for their predicament?"**

**Leo's mouth tasted like calcium carbonate. "Me."**

**The goddess snorted. "Well, don't you have a high opinion of yourself.**

"Well, she was just talking about how you ruined everything. Of course you were going to think that the gods were blaming you." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**You're just a pawn on the chessboard, Leo Valdez.**

**I was referring to the player who set this ridiculous quest in motion, bringing the Greeks and Romans together. The gods blame Hera—or Juno, if you prefer!**

"Fair enough." Percy shrugged.

**The queen of the heavens has fled Olympus to escape the wrath of her family. Don't expect any more help from your patron!"**

**Leo's head throbbed. He had mixed feelings about Hera. She'd meddled in his life since he was a baby, molding him to serve her purpose in this big prophecy, but at least she had been on their side, more or less. If she was out of the picture now …**

"**So why are you here?" he asked.**

"**Why, to offer my help!" Nemesis smiled wickedly.**

"I don't want her help." Leo mumbled.

**Leo glanced at Hazel. She looked like she'd just been offered a free snake.**

"**Your help," Leo said.**

"**Of course!" said the goddess. "I enjoy tearing down the proud and powerful, and there are none who deserve tearing down like Gaea and her giants.**

"She also tried tearing down the gods. I think she was loyalty issues." Percy pointed out.

**Still, I must warn you that I will not suffer undeserved success. Good luck is a sham. The wheel of fortune is a Ponzi scheme. True success requires sacrifice."**

Frank looked at the book curiously. He was hearing a lot about sacrifice lately.

"**Sacrifice?" Hazel's voice was tight. "I lost my mother. I died and came back. Now my brother is missing. Isn't that enough sacrifice for you?"**

**Leo could totally relate. He wanted to scream that he'd lost his mom too. His whole life had been one misery after another. He'd lost his dragon, Festus. He'd nearly killed himself trying to finish the Argo II. Now he'd fired on the Roman camp, most likely started a war, and maybe lost the trust of his friends.**

"Leo, we know that you didn't willingly do it." Annabeth reassured him.

"**Right now," he said, trying to control his anger, "all I want is some Celestial bronze."**

"**Oh, that's easy," Nemesis said. "It's just over the rise. You'll find it with the sweethearts."**

"**Wait," Hazel said. "What sweethearts?"**

**Nemesis popped a cookie in her mouth and swallowed it, fortune and all. "You'll see. Perhaps they will teach you a lesson, Hazel Levesque. Most heroes cannot escape their nature, even when given a second chance at life." She smiled. "And speaking of your brother Nico, you don't have much time. Let's see … it's June twenty-fifth? Yes, after today, six more days. Then he dies, along with the entire city of Rome."**

"Um, how long exactly will it take to get to Rome?" Percy asked.

"Including delays? Probably about six days." Annabeth sighed.

**Hazel's eyes widened. "How … what—?"**

"**And as for you, child of fire." She turned to Leo. "Your worst hardships are yet to come. You will always be the outsider, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren. Soon you will face a problem you cannot solve, though I could help you … for a price."**

"That isn't true, Leo." Jason said. "You're my best friend."

"Yeah, Leo. We would definitely be dead without you. We need you." Piper insisted. Leo smiled gratefully, but he didn't exactly look like he believed them completely.

**Leo smelled smoke. He realized fingers on his left hand were ablaze, and Hazel was staring at him in terror.**

**He shoved his hand in his pocket to extinguish the flames. "I like to solve my own problems."**

"**Very well." Nemesis brushed cookie dust off her jacket.**

"**But, um, what sort of price are we talking about?"**

**The goddess shrugged. "One of my children recently traded an eye for the ability to make a real difference in the world."**

"I'm not willing to give up my eye." Leo shook his head.

"She would probably want more from you." Annabeth pointed out.

**Leo's stomach churned. "You … want an eye?"**

"**In your case, perhaps another sacrifice would do. But something just as painful. Here."**

**She handed him an unbroken fortune cookie. "If you need an answer, break this. It will solve your problem."**

**Leo's hand trembled as he held the fortune cookie. "What problem?"**

"**You'll know when the time comes."**

"Ugh, I hate when gods or godessess act like they're going to tell you something important, then they decide not to." Jason groaned.

"**No, thanks," Leo said firmly. But his hand, as though it had a will of its own, slipped the cookie into his tool belt.**

**Nemesis picked another cookie from her bag and cracked it open. "You will have cause to reconsider your choices soon. Oh, I like that one. No changes needed here."**

**She resealed the cookie and tossed it into the basket. "Very few gods will be able to help you on the quest. Most are already incapacitated, and their confusion will only grow worse. One thing might bring unity to Olympus again—an old wrong finally avenged. Ah, that would be sweet indeed, the scales finally balanced! But it will not happen unless you accept my help."**

"**I suppose you won't tell us what you're talking about," Hazel muttered. "Or why my brother Nico has only six days to live. Or why Rome is going to be destroyed."**

"Of course not." Hazel sighed.

**Nemesis chuckled. She rose and slung her sack of cookies over her shoulder. "Oh, it's all tied together, Hazel Levesque. As for my offer, Leo Valdez, give it some thought. You're a good child. A hard worker. We could do business. But I have detained you too long. You should visit the reflecting pool before the light fades. My poor cursed boy gets quite … agitated when the darkness comes."**

Annabeth ran over all the myths that included any sons of Nemesis that didn't like darkness and suddenly an idea popped into her head. Annabeth grinned, but tried to cover it. She didn't want anyone else knowing that she knew who it was.

**Leo didn't like the sound of that, but the goddess climbed on her motorcycle. Apparently, it was drivable, despite those Pac-Man–shaped wheels, because Nemesis revved her engine and disappeared in a mushroom cloud of black smoke.**

**Hazel bent down. All the broken cookies and fortunes had disappeared except for one crumpled slip of paper. She picked it up and read, "You will see yourself reflected, and you will have reason to despair."**

"**Fantastic," Leo grumbled. "Let's go see what that means."**

"I'll read next." Piper volunteered.

**A/N: Question of the chapter: Who did Annabeth call "Canadians?"**


	9. Leo VII

**A/N: The correct answer was laistrygonians. The first person to guess it correctly was OmegaBanda14. Unfortunately, they don't have any stories so I didn't get to review any stories.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the bold or any of the characters. They belong to Rick Riordan.**

"**Leo VII," **Piper read.

**"Who is Aunt Rosa?" Hazel asked.**

Some people looked at Leo, but Leo looked pointedly at the book.

**Leo didn't want to talk about her. Nemesis's words were still buzzing in his ears. His tool belt seemed heavier since he'd put the cookie in there—which was impossible. Its pockets could carry anything without adding extra weight. Even the most fragile things would never break. Still, Leo imagined he could feel it in there, dragging him down, waiting to be cracked open.**

"Sometimes things that are bothering you often feel like they are literally weighing you down." Percy sighed. Leo looked at Percy and nodded.

**"Long story," he said. "She abandoned me after my mom died, gave me to foster care."**

"You know Leo, you are really brave." Jason pointed out.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Jason, that's not funny."

"No, I'm being serious. You're a lot braver than I could ever be." Jason confessed.

"You really think that?" Leo asked hesitantly, like he was afraid that Jason was going to make fun of him.

"Of course." Jason said honestly.

**"I'm sorry."**

**"Yeah, well …" Leo was anxious to change the subject. "What about you? What Nemesis said about your brother?"**

**Hazel blinked like she'd gotten salt in her eyes. "Nico … he found me in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world and convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me. I owe him for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right, and Nico's in danger … I have to help him."**

"We'll find him." Frank said determinedly. "I promise."

"You shouldn't promise that. You can't control if we get there on time or not." Hazel sighed.

"We'll see about that." Frank grinned.

**"Sure," Leo said, though the idea made him uneasy. He doubted the revenge goddess ever gave advice out of the goodness of her heart.**

**"And what Nemesis said about your brother having six days to live, and Rome getting destroyed … any idea what she meant?"**

**"None," Hazel admitted. "But I'm afraid …"**

**Whatever she was thinking, she decided not to share it.**

"That's so frustrating!" Percy groaned. "It's like holding out a delicious piece of candy right in front of someone's face and then eating it all without sharing."

"Interesting analogy." Annabeth laughed. Percy shrugged.

**She climbed one of the largest boulders to get a better view. Leo tried to follow and lost his balance. Hazel caught his hand. She pulled him up and they found themselves atop the rock, holding hands, face-to-face.**

**Hazel's eyes glittered like gold.**

Leo found himself glancing at Hazel. Her eyes really were beautiful...the way they shined. He shook his head. _Snap out of it. You don't like her, remember? _

**Gold is easy, she'd said. It didn't seem that way to Leo—not when he looked at her. He wondered who Sammy was. Leo had a nagging suspicion that he should know, but he just couldn't place the name. Whoever he was, he was lucky if Hazel cared for him.**

**"Um, thanks." He let go of her hand, but they were still standing so close, he could feel the warmth of her breath. She definitely didn't seem like a dead person.**

Frank eyed Leo suspiciously, but Leo seemed to be distracted by something else.

**"When we were talking to Nemesis," Hazel said uneasily, "your hands … I saw flames."**

**"Yeah," he said. "It's a Hephaestus power. Usually I can keep it under control."**

**"Oh." She put one hand protectively on her denim shirt, like she was about to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Leo got the feeling she wanted to back away from him, but the boulder was too small.**

**Great, he thought. Another person who thinks I'm a scary freak.**

"Im not afraid of you." Hazel laughed as she rolled her eyes. "You know why that made me nervous, right?"

"I know now, but the me in the book doesn't know that." Leo sighed.

**He gazed across the island. The opposite shore was only a few hundred yards away. Between here and there were dunes and clumps of boulders, but nothing that looked like a reflecting pool.**

**You will always be the outsider, Nemesis had told him, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren.**

Piper and Jason shared a nervous glance. Did their best friend really believe that he was a seventh wheel? Why didn't he realize how much they needed him?

"I think we should talk to him." Piper whispered to Jason.

Jason nodded. "On our next break."

**She might as well have poured acid in his ears. Leo didn't need anybody to tell him he was odd man out. He'd spent months alone in Bunker 9 at Camp Half-Blood, working on his ship while his friends trained together and shared meals and played capture-the-flag for fun and prizes. Even his two best friends, Piper and Jason, often treated him like an outsider. Since they'd started dating, their idea of "quality time" didn't include Leo.**

"Leo that's not true!" PIper gasped.

"You are our best friend." Jason agreed.

"You guys have been doing everything together and I'm not usually invited anymore." Leo replied uncomfortably aware of everyone watching them.

"Can we talk at the next break?" Piper asked Leo. Leo noticed that even though it was phrased as a question, it was definitely not a choice.

Leo nodded and turned back to the book.

**His only other friend, Festus the dragon, had been reduced to a figurehead when his control disk had gotten destroyed on their last adventure. Leo didn't have the technical skill to repair it.**

**The seventh wheel. Leo had heard of a fifth wheel—an extra, useless piece of equipment. He figured a seventh wheel was worse.**

**He'd thought maybe this quest would be a fresh start for him. All his hard work on the Argo II would pay off. He'd have six good friends who would admire and appreciate him, and they'd go sailing off into the sunrise to fight giants.**

"We do appreciate you, Leo." Percy said sincerely. "I know you haven't really saved my life specifically, but you helped Annabeth, and that makes you alright in my book."

Leo smiled, surprised that what Percy said actually made him feel a little bit better.

**Maybe, Leo secretly hoped, he'd even find a girlfriend.**

"Any girl would be lucky to have you." PIper told him. "You just have to wait for the right one."

**Do the math, he chided himself.**

**Nemesis was right. He might be part of a group of seven, but he was still isolated. He had fired on the Romans and brought his friends nothing but trouble. You will not find a place among your brethren.**

**"Leo?" Hazel asked gently. "You can't take what Nemesis said to heart."**

**He frowned. "What if it's true?"**

**"She's the goddess of revenge," Hazel reminded him. "Maybe she's on our side, maybe not; but she exists to stir up resentment."**

"That's an excellent point." Reyna commented.

**Leo wished he could dismiss his feelings that easily. He couldn't. Still, it wasn't Hazel's fault.**

**"We should keep going," he said. "I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark."**

**Hazel glanced at the sun, which was just touching the horizon. "And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?"**

**Below them, a voice said, "Cursed boy she mentioned."**

"Who copied him?" Dakota asked.

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm not sure. I think I know who the cursed boy is, but I don't know who is repeating what Leo said."

"You know who the cursed boy is?" Percy asked. Annabeth nodded but mimed zipping up her lips and throwing the key away, signaling that she wouldn't say a word.

**At first, Leo saw no one. Then his eyes adjusted. He realized a young woman was standing only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress was a Greek-style tunic the same color as the rocks. Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blended with the dry grass. She wasn't invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved. Even then, Leo had trouble focusing on her. Her face was pretty but not memorable. In fact, each time Leo blinked, he couldn't remember what she looked like, and he had to concentrate to find her again.**

**"Hello," Hazel said. "Who are you?"**

**"Who are you?" the girl answered. Her voice sounded weary, like she was tired of answering that question.**

"Echo!" Annabeth yelled in delight, unable to hold in her secret.

"If that's Echo, then the cursed boy in Narcissus." Reyna guessed.

"That's what I was thinking." Annabeth nodded.

**Hazel and Leo exchanged looks. With this demigod gig, you never knew what you'd run into. Nine times out of ten, it wasn't good. A ninja girl camouflaged in earth tones didn't strike Leo as something he wanted to deal with just then.**

**"Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?" Leo asked. "But you're a girl."**

**"You're a girl," said the girl.**

**"Excuse me?" Leo said.**

**"Excuse me," the girl said miserably.**

Many people in the clearing laughed, but Percy frowned.

"That's sad, she can't even say anything unless somebody else says it first." He sighed.

Annabeth nodded. "Plenty of myths are sad."

**"You're repeating …" Leo stopped. "Oh. Hold it. Hazel, wasn't there some myth about a girl who repeated everything—?"**

**"Echo," Hazel said.**

**"Echo," the girl agreed. She shifted, her dress changing with the landscape. Her eyes were the color of the salt water. Leo tried to home in on her features, but he couldn't.**

**"I don't remember the myth," he admitted. "You were cursed to repeat the last thing you heard?"**

**"You heard," Echo said.**

**"Poor thing," Hazel said. "If I remember right, a goddess did this?"**

"Probably Hera." Percy said matter-of-factly.

"That would be correct." Annabeth nodded.

**"A goddess did this," Echo confirmed.**

**Leo scratched his head. "But wasn't that thousands of years … oh. You're one of the mortals who came back through the Doors of Death. I really wish we could stop running into dead people."**

**"Dead people," Echo said, like she was chastising him.**

"Hazel's right next to you!" Piper hissed.

Leo's eyes widened in realization. "Oh gods, I wasn't even thinking! Hazel I'm so sorry!"

Hazel shrugged. "It's fine. I'm used to it."

Leo sighed, obviously still worried about what he said.

**He realized Hazel was staring at her feet.**

**"Uh … sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean it that way."**

**"That way." Echo pointed toward the far shore of the island.**

**"You want to show us something?" Hazel asked. She climbed down the boulder, and Leo followed.**

**Even up close, Echo was hard to see. In fact, she seemed to get more invisible the longer he looked at her.**

Everyone looked sad. How would it feel if nobody could remember what you looked like?

**"You sure you're real?" he asked. "I mean … flesh and blood?"**

**"Flesh and blood." She touched Leo's face and made him flinch. Her fingers were warm.**

**"So … you have to repeat everything?" he asked.**

"Oh, I think I know where this is going." Dakota grinned.

**"Everything."**

**Leo couldn't help smiling.**

**"That could be fun."**

**"Fun," she said unhappily.**

"I don't think she agrees with you." Frank pointed out.

**"Blue elephants."**

**"Blue elephants."**

**"Kiss me, you fool."**

**"You fool."**

"Ah, she found a loophole." Percy laughed. "You had that coming."

"Yeah, I guess I did." Leo sighed.

**"Hey!"**

**"Hey!"**

**"Leo," Hazel pleaded, "don't tease her."**

**"Don't tease her," Echo agreed.**

**"Okay, okay," Leo said, though he had to resist the urge. It wasn't every day he met somebody with a built-in talkback feature. "So what were you pointing at? Do you need our help?"**

"Obviously." Octavian sneered.

"Octavian." Reyna said sternly. Octavian shut up like a good Roman soldier, but as soon as Reyna turned around he glared at the back of her head.

**"Help," Echo agreed emphatically.**

**She gestured for them to follow and sprinted down the slope. Leo could only follow her progress by the movement of the grass and the shimmer of her dress as it changed to match the rocks.**

**"We'd better hurry," Hazel said. "Or we'll lose her."**

**They found the problem—if you can call a mob of good-looking girls a problem.**

"I can." Jason shivered. "Don't you remember back in December?"

Leo grimaced. "Yes, that was terrifying!"

"Horrifying." Piper agreed. Reyna sighed, another thing about Jason that she could never understand.

**Echo led them down into a grassy meadow shaped like a blast crater, with a small pond in the middle. Gathered at the water's edge were several dozen nymphs. At least, Leo guessed they were nymphs. Like the ones at Camp Half-Blood, these wore gossamer dresses. Their feet were bare. They had elfish features, and their skin had a slightly greenish tinge.**

**Leo didn't understand what they were doing, but they were all crowded together in one spot, facing the pond and jostling for a better view. Several held up phone cameras, trying to get a shot over the heads of the others. Leo had never seen nymphs with phones. He wondered if they were looking at a dead body. If so, why were they bouncing up and down and giggling so excitedly?**

"They're acting like the papparazi." Piper giggled, she had plenty of experience with them. "All because of a good looking guy."

**"What are they looking at?" Leo wondered.**

**"Looking at," Echo sighed.**

**"One way to find out." Hazel marched forward and began nudging her way through the crowd. "Excuse us. Pardon me."**

**"Hey!" one nymph complained. "We were here first!"**

**"Yeah," another sniffed. "He won't be interested in you."**

"That's not a problem." Hazel smiled as she looked at her's and Frank's intertwined hands. "I already have my own boyfriend."

As Leo looked at them he felt a pang of jealousy, but shrugged it off as being desperate for a girlfriend.

**The second nymph had large red hearts painted on her cheeks. Over her dress, she wore a T-shirt that read: OMG, I 3 N!**

"What is that?" Reyna asked as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"That means I love Narcissus." Piper explained. "The 3 is a heart and the N is short for Narcissus."

"Oh. Why don't they just say I love Narcissus?" Reyna asked.

Piper shrugged. "Maybe because that would actually make sense."

As Reyna smiled Piper felt a tinge of regret that Reyna had to like Jason. She had a feeling that they could've been friends if they had the right oppurtunity.

**"Uh, demigod business," Leo said, trying to sound official. "Make room. Thanks."**

**The nymphs grumbled, but they parted to reveal a young man kneeling at the edge of the pond, gazing intently at the water.**

**Leo usually didn't pay much attention to how other guys looked. He supposed that came from hanging around Jason—tall, blond, rugged, and basically everything Leo could never be.**

"Jason is very handsome." A Roman girl agreed.

"Yeah, but Leo has that scrawny kind of cute thing going for him." somebody else replied.

"Well, in my opinion, Percy is the hottest. I mean, have you seen him?" a girl looking girl stated. The other two girls nodded in agreement. Jason, Leo, and Percy all looked very uncomfortable and were loooking determinedly at the book.

**Leo was used to not being noticed by girls. At least, he knew he'd never get a girl by his looks. He hoped his personality and sense of humor would do that someday, though it definitely hadn't worked yet.**

**At any rate, Leo couldn't miss the fact that the guy at the pond was one super good-looking dude. He had a chiseled face with lips and eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome. Dark hair swept over his brow. He might've been seventeen or twenty, it was hard to say, but he was built like a dancer**

Annabeth scrunched her nose. "A dancer?"

"What, you don't like dancers?" Percy asked in amusement.

Annabeth grinned. "I prefer swimmers."

"Oh, good choice." Percy laughed as he kissed the top of her head.

—**with long graceful arms and muscular legs, perfect posture and an air of regal calm. He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans, with a bow and quiver strapped to his back. The weapons obviously hadn't been used in a while. The arrows were covered in dust. A spider had woven a web in the top of the bow.**

**As Leo edged closer, he realized the guy's face was unusually golden. In the sunset, the light was bouncing off a large flat sheet of Celestial bronze that lay at the bottom of the pond, washing Mr. Handsome's features in a warm glow.**

**The guy seemed fascinated with his reflection in the metal.**

"Wasn't that a curse too?" Leo asked. "He fell in love with himself?"

Annabeth nodded. "Nemesis cursed him for breaking so many hearts."

**Hazel inhaled sharply. "He's gorgeous."**

Frank raised an eyebrow as Hazel blushed. "I don't _like _him."

"I know." Frank smiled, "I just think it's interesting."

**Around her, the nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement.**

**"I am," the young man murmured dreamily, his gaze still fixed on the water. "I am so gorgeous."**

**One of the nymphs showed her iPhone screen. "His latest YouTube video got a million hits in like, an hour. I think I was half of those!"**

"What could he possibly do to get a million hits?" Leo asked. "His life doesn't seem very exciting."

**The other nymphs giggled.**

**"YouTube video?" Leo asked. "What does he do in the video, sing?"**

**"No, silly!" the nymph chided. "He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn't matter. Now he just … well, look!" She showed Leo the video. It was exactly what they were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.**

"How did that get a million hits?" Leo gasped. "That's crazy!"

"Leo, it's just youtube." Piper pointed out.

Leo nodded, but he looked distracted and kept muttering "a million hits."

**"He is sooooo hot!" said another girl. Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS.**

**"Narcissus?" Leo asked.**

**"Narcissus," Echo agreed sadly.**

**Leo had forgotten Echo was there. Apparently none of the nymphs had noticed her either.**

**"Oh, not you again!" Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflaged girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs.**

"Karma." Piper smiled.

**"You had your chance, Echo!" said the nymph with the iPhone. "He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him."**

**"For him," Echo said bitterly.**

**"Wait." Hazel clearly had trouble tearing her eyes away from the handsome guy, but she managed it. "What's going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?"**

**One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. "Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah, blah, blah, all the time."**

"Most of them seem gossipy though." Percy commented.

Annabeth shrugged. "Maybe Echo was extra gossipy or something."

**"I know!" another nymph shrieked. "Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know she lives in the boulder next to me?—I said: Stop gossiping or you'll end up like Echo. Cleopeia is such a big mouth! Did you hear what she said about that cloud nymph and the satyr?"**

"They're gosssiping right now." Jason laughed.

Piper grinned. "Hypocrites."

**"Totally!" said the nymph with the poster. "So anyway, as punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed Echo so she could only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus—as if he would ever notice her."**

**"As if!" said half a dozen others.**

**"Now she's got some weird idea he needs saving," said Mrs. Narcissus. "She should just go away."**

"It seems like she's the only one that really cares about him." Piper said sadly. "She deserves better."

**"Go away," Echo growled back.**

**"I'm so glad Narcissus is alive again," said another nymph in a gray dress. She had the words NARCISSUS + LAIEA written up and down her arms in black marker. "He's like the best! And he's in my territory."**

**"Oh, stop it, Laiea," her friend said. "I'm the pond nymph. You're just the rock nymph."**

"I agree with the pond nymph." Dakota said. "He's there to look at his replection, not to sit on a rock."

**"Well, I'm the grass nymph," another protested.**

**"No, he obviously came here because he likes the wildflowers!" another said. "Those are mine!"**

**The whole mob began arguing while Narcissus stared at the lake, ignoring them.**

**"Hold it!" Leo yelled. "Ladies, hold it! I need to ask Narcissus something."**

**Slowly the nymphs settled down and went back to taking pictures.**

**Leo knelt next to the handsome dude. "So, Narcissus. What's up?"**

**"Could you move?" Narcissus asked distractedly. "You're ruining the view."**

"He seems like a nice guy." Leo said sarcastically.

**Leo looked in the water. His own reflection rippled next to Narcissus's on the surface of the submerged bronze. Leo didn't have any desire to stare at himself. Compared to Narcissus, he looked like an undergrown troll.**

**But there was no doubt the metal was a sheet of hammered Celestial bronze, roughly circular, about five feet in diameter.**

"That's really convenient." Annabeth pointed out.

"Which means a god or goddess put it there as a trap." Percy sighed.

**What it was doing in this pond, Leo wasn't sure. Celestial bronze fell to earth in odd places. He'd heard that most pieces were cast off from his dad's various workshops. Hephaestus would lose his temper when projects didn't work out, and he'd toss his scraps into the mortal world. This piece looked like it might have been meant as a shield for a god, but it hadn't turned out properly. If Leo could get it back to the ship, it would be just enough bronze for his repairs.**

**"Right, great view," Leo said. "Happy to move, but if you're not using it, could I just take that sheet of bronze?"**

**"No," Narcissus said. "I love him. He's so gorgeous."**

"That's ridiculous!" Percy laughed.

"I can't believe this is serious." Annabeth shook her head.

**Leo looked around to see if the nymphs were laughing. This had to be a huge joke. But they were swooning and nodding in agreement. Only Hazel seemed appalled. She wrinkled her nose as if she'd come to the conclusion that Narcissus smelled worse than he looked.**

**"Man," Leo said to Narcissus. "You do realize that you're looking at yourself in the water, right?"**

**"I am so great," Narcissus sighed. He stretched out a hand longingly to touch the water, but held back. "No, I can't make ripples. That ruins the image. Wow … I am so great."**

"That's pathetic."

**"Yeah," Leo muttered. "But if I took the bronze, you could still see yourself in the water. Or here …" He reached in his tool belt and pulled out a simple mirror the size of a monocle. "I'll trade you."**

**Narcissus took the mirror, reluctantly, and admired himself. "Even you carry a picture of me? I don't blame you. I am gorgeous. **

"He certainly thinks highly of himself." Leo frowned.

**Thank you." He set the mirror down and returned his attention to the pond. "But I already have a much better image. The color flatters me, don't you think?"**

**"Oh, gods, yes!" a nymph screamed. "Marry me, Narcissus!"**

**"No, me!" another cried. "Would you sign my poster?"**

**"No, sign my shirt!"**

**"No, sign my forehead!"**

**"No, sign my—"**

"That was getting interesting." Dakota frowned.

**"Stop it!" Hazel snapped.**

**"Stop it," Echo agreed.**

**Leo had lost sight of Echo again, but now he realized she was kneeling on the other side of Narcissus, waving her hand in front of his face as if trying to break his concentration. Narcissus didn't even blink.**

**The nymph fan club tried to shove Hazel out of the way, but she drew her cavalry sword and forced them back. "Snap out of it!" she yelled.**

**"He won't sign your sword," the poster nymph complained.**

"Why in the name of Zeus would I want him to sign my sword?" Hazel asked.

"I have no idea. These nymphs are insane." Frank shrugged.

**"He won't marry you," said the iPhone girl. "And you can't take his bronze mirror! That's what keeps him here!"**

**"You're all ridiculous," Hazel said. "He's so full of himself! How can you possibly like him?"**

**"Like him," Echo sighed, still waving her hand in front of his face.**

**The others sighed along with her.**

"Don't they have a life of their own?" Reyna groaned.

"No, it doesn't look like it." Annabeth sighed.

**"I am so hot," Narcissus said sympathetically.**

**"Narcissus, listen." Hazel kept her sword at the ready. "Echo brought us here to help you. Didn't you, Echo?"**

**"Echo," said Echo.**

**"Who?" Narcissus said.**

"He doesn't even know who she is." an older Roman sighed sadly.

**"The only girl who cares what happens to you, apparently," Hazel said. "Do you remember dying?"**

**Narcissus frowned. "I … no. That can't be right. I am much too important to die."**

"This guy is really getting on my nerves." Reyna stated.

**"You died staring at yourself," Hazel insisted. "I remember the story now. Nemesis was the goddess who cursed you, because you broke so many hearts. Your punishment was to fall in love with your own reflection."**

**"I love me so, so much," Narcissus agreed.**

**"You finally died," Hazel continued. "I don't know which version of the story is true. You either drowned yourself or turned into a flower hanging over the water or—Echo, which is it?"**

"He probably drowned himself." Annabeth answered. "Trying to reach his reflection."

**"Which is it?" she said hopelessly.**

**Leo stood. "It doesn't matter. The point is you're alive again, man. You have a second chance. That's what Nemesis was telling us. You can get up, and get on with your life. Echo is trying to save you. Or you can stay here and stare at yourself until you die again."**

**"Stay here!" all the nymphs screamed.**

"None of them care if he dies as long as they get to see him." Hazel shook her head.

**"Marry me before you die!" another squeaked.**

**Narcissus shook his head. "You just want my reflection. I don't blame you, but you can't have it. I belong to me."**

**Hazel sighed in exasperation. She glanced at the sun, which was sinking fast. Then she gestured with her sword toward the edge of the crater. "Leo, could we talk for a minute?"**

**"Excuse us," Leo told Narcissus. "Echo, want to come with?"**

"It's nice of you to include her." Hazel smiled. Leo smiled back, trying to avoid the fluttery feeling in his stomach.

**"Come with," Echo confirmed.**

**The nymphs clustered around Narcissus again and began recording new videos and taking more photos.**

**Hazel led the way until they were out of earshot. "Nemesis was right," she said. "Some demigods can't change their nature. Narcissus is going to stay there until he dies again."**

"Some people never change." Percy sighed.

**"No," Leo said.**

**"No," Echo agreed.**

**"We need that bronze," Leo said. "If we take it away, it might give Narcissus a reason to snap out of it. Echo could have a chance to save him."**

"Or he could go crazy and shoot you guys with his bow and arrow." Annabeth pointed out.

"I like the first outcome better." Leo grimaced.

**"A chance to save him," Echo said gratefully.**

**Hazel stabbed her sword in the sand. "It could also make several dozen nymphs very angry with us," she said. "And Narcissus might still know how to shoot his bow."**

"Hazel agrees with me." Annabeth smiled.

"That isn't exactly a good thing." Percy informed his girlfriend.

"Oh, right." she frowned.

**Leo pondered that. The sun was just about down. Nemesis had mentioned that Narcissus got agitated after dark, probably because he couldn't see his reflection anymore. Leo didn't want to stick around long enough to find out what the goddess meant by agitated. He'd also had experience with mobs of crazed nymphs. He wasn't anxious to repeat that.**

Leo, Piper, and Jason all exchanged a look then burst out laughing, leaving everyone else confused as to what they were laughing about.

**"Hazel," he said, "your power with precious metal— Can you just detect it, or can you actually summon it to you?"**

"I can summon it if I'm close enough." Hazel answered.

"Thanks, but I think I was asking your book-self." Leo laughed.

"Oh, right." Hazel blushed.

**She frowned. "Sometimes I can summon it. I've never tried with a piece of Celestial bronze that big before. I might be able to draw it to me through the earth, but I'd have to be fairly close. It would take a lot of concentration, and it wouldn't be fast."**

**"Be fast," Echo warned.**

**Leo cursed. He had hoped they could just go back to the ship, and Hazel could teleport the Celestial bronze from a safe distance.**

"Nope, that would be too easy." Hazel sighed.

**"All right," he said. "We'll have to try something risky. Hazel, how about you try to summon the bronze from right here? Make it sink through the sand and tunnel over to you, then grab it and run for the ship."**

**"But Narcissus is looking at it all the time," she said.**

**"All the time," Echo echoed.**

**"That'll be my job," Leo said, hating his own plan already.**

"Usually that's a sign that the plan isn't going to work exactly as planned." Percy said. "I'm very experienced in that matter."

**"Echo and I will cause a distraction."**

**"Distraction?" Echo asked.**

**"I'll explain," Leo promised. "Are you willing?"**

"I think she's willing to do anything for Narcissus." Annabeth sighed.

**"Willing," Echo said.**

**"Great," Leo said. "Now, let's hope we don't die."**

"Who wants to go next?" Piper held the book up.

"I will." a Roman in the back called out.

**A/N: Question of the Chapter: In the Son of Neptune which reindeers do Percy say he could eat?**


	10. Leo VIII

**A/N: I haven't updated in a long time. I know that. I am very busy. I am in two sports, I'm in all honors classes, and I'd still like to have a social life. It really doesn't make me write chapters faster when people review saying "write faster." It's okay to say that, but if you are going to say that, then it would be helpful if you also gave me some feedback on the actual story. This chapter is dedicated to cm27815. This author guessed the correct answer as Prancer and Blitzen. As a reward, I reviewed one of their stories.**

"**Leo VIII**," the Roman started reading.

**Leo psyched himself up for an extreme makeover.**

"This sounds good already." Percy grinned.

Leo frowned. "Maybe for you, it doesn't sound very good to me."

**He summoned some breath mints and a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt. The goggles weren't exactly sunglasses, but they'd have to do. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He used some machine oil to grease back his hair. He stuck a wrench in his back pocket (why exactly, he wasn't sure) and he had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with a marker: HOT STUFF, with a skull and crossbones.**

"What are you trying to do?" Piper asked. "Distract them all by making a fool of yourself?"

"Hey! I bet I look awesome!" Leo protested.

"Sure, Leo." Jason grinned.

**"What in the world are you thinking?" She sounded pretty flustered.**

**"I try not to think," Leo admitted. "It interferes with being nuts.**

"That's very true." Percy agreed, trying to act serious.

Annabeth shoved Percy's shoulder teasingly, "You're good enough at being nuts that you could be nuts and think at the same time."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Percy smiled.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Annabeth laughed.

**Just concentrate on moving that Celestial bronze. Echo, you ready?"**

**"Ready," she said.**

**Leo took a deep breath. He strutted back toward the pond, hoping he looked awesome and not like he had some sort of nervous affliction. "Leo is the coolest!" he shouted.**

**"Leo is the coolest!" Echo shouted back.**

"Echo makes really good support." Frank pointed out. "She agrees with everything you say."

**"Yeah, baby, check me out!"**

**"Check me out!" Echo said.**

**"Make way for the king!"**

**"The king!"**

**"Narcissus is weak!"**

**"Weak!"**

**The crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. Leo shooed them away as if they were bothering him. "No autographs, girls. I know you want some Leo time, but I'm way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He's lame!"**

"This might actually work." Annabeth said thoughtfully. "It would only work temporarily, but you just need enough time for Hazel to get the Celestial bronze."

"How much time would they need? The Celestial bronze is really heavy." someone asked.

"I don't know." Annabeth admitted. "It will definitely take longer."

**"Lame!" Echo said with enthusiasm.**

**The nymphs muttered angrily.**

**"What are you talking about?" one demanded.**

**"You're lame," said another.**

"Or it might now work." Reyna suggested. "It could go either way."

**Leo adjusted his goggles and smiled. He flexed his biceps, though he didn't have much to flex,**

**and showed off his HOT STUFF tattoo. He had the nymphs' attention, if only because they were stunned; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection.**

"You should hurry before Narcissus gets back their attention." Percy advised.

"Wow, that's actually good advice." Jason said sounding surprised.

"I'm not completely stupid." Percy grinned and rolled his eyes.

**"You know how ugly Narcissus is?" Leo asked the crowd. "He's so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur—with a horse butt for a face."**

**Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his face.**

Reyna rolled her eyes. "I don't understand how anyone could like him."

**"You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Leo continued. "He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can't find one!"**

"That one's actually kind of funny." Percy laughed, "but I think you could do better. You have a lot of potential."

**One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence.**

"Hey the nymph agreed with me!" Percy smiled.

"You mean one of the nymphs that are obsessed with Narcissus?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

Percy frowned. "Well, when you put it like that..."

**Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. "Who are you?"**

**"I'm the Super-sized McShizzle, man!" Leo said. "I'm Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy."**

"Annabeth does." Piper laughed after glancing at Percy.

"Percy isn't a bad boy." Annabeth protested.

"Are you sure?" Piper asked.

"I'm not." Percy agreed with Annabeth, "Unless it's a good thing."

"It's a good thing for Annabeth." Piper answered.

"Then I'm definitely a bad boy." Percy said before pecking Annabeth on the lips.

Annabeth blushed but covered it up by lightly hitting Percy on the chest.

**"Love a bad boy!" Echo said, with a convincing squeal.**

**Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. "Narcissus is a loser! He's so weak, he can't bench-press a Kleenex. He's so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it's got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture's so ugly, no one ever checks it out."**

**Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For the moment, he'd totally forgotten about the pond, and Leo could see the sheet of bronze sinking into the sand.**

"This is Hazel's chance." Leo suddenly got serious.

"I'll be able to do it." Hazel said confidently. "I have to."

**"What are you talking about?" Narcissus demanded. "I am amazing. Everyone knows this."**

**"Amazing at pure suck," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that."**

"Hey, that one was funny too!" Percy laughed.

"If I keep being this funny in the future, I'm going to make myself laugh." Leo smiled.

**Another nymph giggled. Then another. Narcissus growled, which did make him look a little less handsome. Meanwhile Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his goggles and spread his hands, gesturing for applause.**

**"That's right!" he said. "Team Leo for the win!"**

"Team Leo sounds pretty cool." Leo pointed out. "It's a lot better than Team Narcissus."

"That doesn't make it cool." Jason replied.

**"Team Leo for the win!" Echo shouted. She'd wriggled into the mob of nymphs, and because she was so hard to see, the nymphs apparently thought the voice came from one of their own.**

"She's like a spy." Dakota cheered.

**"Oh my god, I am so awesome!" Leo bellowed.**

**"So awesome!" Echo yelled back.**

**"He is funny," a nymph ventured.**

**"And cute, in a scrawny way," another said.**

"I can't believe this is actually working. It's like you are brainwashing them." Reyna said.

"I don't need to brainwash girls for them to think I'm funny or cute." Leo frowned.

**"Scrawny?" Leo asked. "Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot. And I GOT the scrawny. Narcissus? He's such a loser even the Underworld didn't want him. He couldn't get the ghost girls to date him."**

**"Eww," said a nymph.**

**"Eww!" Echo agreed.**

**"Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be…" He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us."**

**Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely stupid.**

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Annabeth disagreed.

**Realization dawned on his face. He turned back to the pond. "The bronze mirror is gone! My reflection! Give me back to me!"**

**"Team Leo!" one of the nymphs squeaked. But the others returned their attention to Narcissus.**

"That one nymph is the only smart one." Leo declared.

"Sure, Leo." Piper rolled his eyes.

**"I'm the beautiful one!" Narcissus insisted. "He's stolen my mirror, and I'm going to leave unless we get it back!"**

"We couldn't have that." Percy said sarcastically.

**The girls gasped. One pointed. "There!"**

**Hazel was at the top of the crater, running away as fast as she could while lugging a large sheet of bronze.**

"Run faster." someone yelled.

"I think I'm running as fast as possible." Hazel rolled her eyes.

**"Get it back!" cried a nymph.**

**Probably against her will, Echo muttered, "Get it back."**

**"Yes!" Narcissus unslung his bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver. "The first one who gets that bronze, I will like you almost as much as I like me. I might even kiss you, right after I kiss my reflection!"**

"How could they like him?" Frank winced.

"They don't have as much sense as me." Hazel smiled and poked her boyfriend in the side, making Frank blush.

**"Oh my gods!" the nymphs screamed.**

**"And kill those demigods!" Narcissus added, glaring very handsomely at Leo. "They are not as cool as me!"**

**Leo could run pretty fast when someone was trying to kill him. Sadly, he'd had a lot of practice.**

"Most demigods have." Leo added on.

**He overtook Hazel, which was easy, since she was struggling with fifty pounds of Celestial bronze.**

**He took one side of the metal plate and glanced back. Narcissus was nocking an arrow, but it was so old and brittle, it broke into splinters.**

"Would he even be able to shoot it after not using it for so long?" Piper questioned.

Annabeth shrugged, "I don't think there's any way to tell."

**"Ow!" he yelled very attractively. "My manicure!"**

"Where did he get a manicure?" Leo asked.

"Why are you asking us? How are we supposed to know?" Jason shrugged.

**Normally nymphs were quick—at least the ones at Camp Half-Blood were—but these were burdened with posters, T-shirts, and other Narcissus™ merchandise. The nymphs also weren't great at working as a team. They kept stumbling over one another, pushing and shoving. Echo made things worse by running among them, tripping and tackling as many as she could.**

**Still, they were closing rapidly.**

Everyone looked around nervously.

**"Call Arion!" Leo gasped.**

**"Already did!" Hazel said.**

**They ran for the beach. They made it to the edge of the water and could see the Argo II, but there was no way to get there. It was much too far to swim, even if they hadn't been toting bronze.**

**Leo turned. The mob was coming over the dunes, Narcissus in the lead, holding his bow like a band major's baton. The nymphs had conjured assorted weapons. Some held rocks. Some had wooden clubs wreathed in flowers. A few of the water nymphs had squirt guns—which seemed not quite as terrifying—but the look in their eyes was still murderous.**

"Squirt guns could be very terrifying." Percy disagreed. "Once, I had a squirt gun fight against a merman, and it was _scary._"

"Did you win?" Leo asked.

"Of course." Percy grinned.

"He was against Triton." Annabeth added.

"Which, of course, motivated me even more." Percy smirked.

"I thought you guys were getting along better." Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows.

"We are, but there's still sibling rivalry." Percy nodded.

"Wait, you fought Triton and won?" Jason raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah, no big deal." Percy shrugged, even though it was obvious he thought it was a big deal.

**"Oh, man," Leo muttered, summoning fire in his free hand. "Straight-up fighting isn't my thing."**

**"Hold the Celestial bronze." Hazel drew her sword. "Get behind me!"**

**"Get behind me!" Echo repeated. The camouflaged girl was racing ahead of the mob now. She stopped in front of Leo and turned, spreading her arms as if she meant to personally shield him.**

**"Echo?" Leo could hardly talk with the lump in his throat. "You're one brave nymph."**

"She's way too good for Narcissus." Leo sighed.

**"Brave nymph?" Her tone made it a question.**

**"I'm proud to have you on Team Leo," he said. "If we survive this, you should forget Narcissus."**

**"Forget Narcissus?" she said uncertainly.**

**"You're way too good for him."**

"It looks like you haven't changed your mind about that." Percy pointed out.

"That's not really something somebody changes their mind about." Leo shrugged.

**The nymphs surrounded them in a semicircle.**

**"Trickery!" Narcissus said. "They don't love me, girls! We all love me, don't we?"**

**"Yes!" the girls screamed, except for one confused nymph in a yellow dress who squeaked, "Team Leo!"**

"She's my favorite." Leo smiled. "She could be president of my fan club!"

"Leo, you don't really have a fan club," Piper pointed out.

"Piper! Don't ruin my fantasy!" Leo pouted, making Piper roll her eyes.

**"Kill them!" Narcissus ordered.**

**The nymphs surged forward, but the sand in front of them exploded. Arion raced out of nowhere, circling the mob so quickly he created a sandstorm, showering the nymphs in white lime, spraying their eyes.**

"Good timing!"

**"I love this horse!" Leo said.**

**The nymphs collapsed, coughing and gagging. Narcissus stumbled around blindly, swinging his bow like he was trying to hit a piñata.**

"I don't think he'd like that description." Hazel laughed.

**Hazel climbed into the saddle, hoisted up the bronze, and offered Leo a hand.**

**"We can't leave Echo!" Leo said.**

**"Leave Echo," the nymph repeated.**

**She smiled, and for the first time Leo could clearly see her face. She really was pretty. Her eyes were bluer than he'd realized. How had he missed that?**

"Part of the curse." Annabeth sighed.

**"Why?" Leo asked. "You don't think you can still save Narcissus …"**

**"Save Narcissus," she said confidently. And even though it was only an echo, Leo could tell that she meant it. She'd been given a second chance at life, and she was determined to use it to save the guy she loved—even if he was a completely hopeless (though very handsome) moron.**

**Leo wanted to protest, but Echo leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then pushed him gently away.**

"I don't think there's any way you could change her mind." Piper said softly. Leo nodded and looked down.

**"Leo, come on!" Hazel called.**

**The other nymphs were starting to recover. They wiped the lime out of their eyes, which were now glowing green with anger. Leo looked for Echo again, but she had dissolved into the scenery.**

**"Yeah," he said, his throat dry. "Yeah, okay."**

**He climbed up behind Hazel. Arion took off across the water, the nymphs screaming behind them, and Narcissus shouting, "Bring me back! Bring me back!"**

"Maybe now he will finally realize that there's more important things than himself." Hazel commented.

"He won't, unfortunately. It's part of the curse." Annabeth sighed.

**As Arion raced toward the Argo II, Leo remembered what Nemesis had said about Echo and Narcissus: Perhaps they'll teach you a lesson.**

**Leo had thought she'd meant Narcissus, but now he wondered if the real lesson for him was Echo—invisible to her brethren, cursed to love someone who didn't care for her. A seventh wheel. He tried to shake that thought. He clung to the sheet of bronze like a shield.**

**He was determined never to forget Echo's face. She deserved at least one person who saw her and knew how good she was. Leo closed his eyes, but the memory of her smile was already **

**fading.**

"I want to be next." Leo called out.

"You already read." Jason pointed out.

"Nobody else is volunteering." Leo smirked as someone threw the book to him. Jason shook his head and smiled, leaning back on his hands and getting ready to listen to the next chapter.

**A/N: Question of the Chapter: Which chapter in which book first mentions Blackjack? **


	11. Piper IX

**A/N: The first person to review was DaughterofViolanceandAthena. As a reward, I reviewed one of her stories.**

Leo looked at the title of the next chapter and smiled, "We get to see Piper's thoughts now!"

"I forgot I had to go through this." Piper groaned.

"It can't be that bad." Jason rolled his eyes.

"It is." Percy, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, and Leo said at the same time.

**"Piper IX," **

**Piper didn't want to use the knife.**

**But sitting in Jason's cabin, waiting for him to wake up, she felt alone and helpless.**

**Jason's face was so pale, he might've been dead. **

Piper and Leo looked at Jason worriedly, but Jason didn't look phased as he replied, "Worse things have happened. I'm just glad you guys didn't get hurt."

Piper nodded, but the worried look didn't disappear from her face. She quietly grabbed his hand and he squeezed her hand in response.

**She remembered the awful sound of that brick hitting his forehead—an injury that had happened only because he'd tried to shield her from the Romans.**

"That's just great." Jason said sarcastically. "My two best friends both blame each other for my injury."

"But if I-"

"No, it was Gaea's fault. Not anyone else's." Jason said firmly.

**Even with the nectar and ambrosia they'd managed to force-feed him, Piper couldn't be sure he would be okay when he woke up. What if he'd lost his memories again—but this time, his memories of her?**

Piper winced at the thought of that ever happening.

**That would be the cruelest trick the gods had played on her yet, and they'd played some pretty cruel tricks.**

"I know what you mean." Annabeth grumbled as she glared at the sky. "You hear that Hera? I still don't forgive you!"

"She's crazy!" Somebody yelled as their eyes grew wide.

"That's why I love her." Percy smiled a lop-sided grin as he watched his girlfriend yell at the sky.

"Oh, like you haven't ever argued with a god." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Most of the gods hate you and want to kill you."

"My father doesn't. Artemis doesn't anymore. Apollo and I are cool. Hestia was always nice to me. Aphrodite isn't interfering in my relationships anymore."

"I said most." Annabeth pointed out with a smile.

"I'm going to keep going." Leo said, not wanting to interrupt Percy and Annabeth.

**She heard Gleeson Hedge in his room next door, humming a military song—"Stars and Stripes Forever," maybe? Since the satellite TV was out, the satyr was probably sitting on his bunk reading back issues of Guns & Ammo magazine. He wasn't a bad chaperone, but he was definitely the most warlike old goat Piper had ever met.**

**Of course she was grateful to the satyr. He had helped her dad, movie actor Tristan McLean, get back on his feet after being kidnapped by giants the past winter. A few weeks ago, Hedge had asked his girlfriend, Mellie, to take charge of the McLean household so he could come along to help with this quest.**

"That's surprisingly nice of him." Percy furrowed his eyebrows.

"You know him?" Leo asked.

"Grover has told me some stories." Percy shrugged. "From what I heard, he sounds pretty funny."

"Not when you actually meet him." Jason mumbled.

**Coach Hedge had tried to make it sound like returning to Camp Half-Blood had been all his idea, but Piper suspected there was more to it. The last few weeks, whenever Piper called home, her dad and Mellie had asked her what was wrong. Maybe something in her voice had tipped them off.**

**Piper couldn't share the visions she'd seen. They were too disturbing. Besides, her dad had taken a potion that had erased all of Piper's demigod secrets from his memory. But he could still tell when she was upset, and she was pretty sure her dad had encouraged Coach to look out for her.**

"You took your dad's memories away?" Somebody asked, making Piper wince.

"Some mortal parents aren't meant to know who the parent of their kid is. They are better off not knowing." Annabeth defended Piper.

**She shouldn't draw her blade. It would only make her feel worse.**

**Finally the temptation was too great. She unsheathed Katoptris. It didn't look very special, just a triangular blade with an unadorned hilt, but it had once been owned by Helen of Troy.**

"Mine was owned by Hercules." Percy grumbled.

"Cool!"

"That's awesome!"

"Can I touch it?"

"Trust me, it isn't as cool as it seems." Percy sighed as his thoughts drifted to Zoe.

**The dagger's name meant "looking glass."**

**Piper gazed at the bronze blade. At first, she saw only her reflection. Then light rippled across the metal. She saw a crowd of Roman demigods gathered in the forum. The blond scarecrow-looking kid, Octavian, was speaking to the mob, shaking his fist. Piper couldn't hear him, but the gist was obvious: We need to kill those Greeks!**

**Reyna, the praetor, stood to one side, her face tight with suppressed emotion. Bitterness? Anger? Piper wasn't sure.**

"Probably both." Percy said thoughtfully.

**She'd been prepared to hate Reyna, but she couldn't. During the feast in the forum, Piper had admired the way Reyna kept her feelings in check.**

**Reyna had sized up Piper and Jason's relationship right away. As a daughter of Aphrodite, Piper could tell stuff like that. Yet Reyna had stayed polite and in control. She'd put her camp's needs ahead of her emotions. She'd given the Greeks a fair chance … right up until the Argo II had started destroying her city.**

**She'd almost made Piper feel guilty about being Jason's girlfriend, though that was silly. Jason hadn't ever been Reyna's boyfriend, not really.**

As everyone was looking at Reyna, Annabeth was looking at Piper curiously. The "not really" she added made Piper seem doubtful of what she was saying, or that she was trying to hide guilt for something. Was it possible that Piper thought she stole Jason away from Reyna? Annabeth shook herself out of her thoughts and continued listening to the books. After all, there was no way to find the answer out now.

**Maybe Reyna wasn't so bad, but it didn't matter now. They'd messed up the chance for peace. Piper's power of persuasion had, for once, done absolutely no good.**

**Her secret fear? Maybe she hadn't tried hard enough. Piper had never wanted to make friends with the Romans. She was too worried about losing Jason to his old life. Maybe unconsciously she hadn't put her best effort into the charmspeak.**

"You don't believe that, do you?" Jason asked. Piper just shrugged in embarrassment. Jason didn't know what to say, so he just wrapped his arms around her as a sign of support. Piper thought it helped a lot more than anything he could have said.

**Now Jason was hurt. The ship had been almost destroyed. And according to her dagger, that crazy teddy-bear-strangling kid, Octavian, was whipping the Romans into a war frenzy.**

Octavian, noticing everyone's glares directed at him, used his words to get out of a tight spot, "We still don't know that this book isn't some type of trick! I believe we shouldn't trust the Greeks until we have proof that they aren't dangerous. How do we know that this book is not full of lies?"

A few people were still glaring at Octavian, but most scooted back a couple feet away from the seven, making them shoot withering glares at Octavian.

**The scene in her blade shifted. There was a rapid series of images she'd seen before, but she still didn't understand them: Jason riding into battle on horseback, his eyes gold instead of blue;**

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other quickly, both thinking of Luke/Kronos.

Percy looked at everyone around them before leaning closer to Annabeth and whispering, "Do you think he is going to be possesed?"

Annabeth shrugged helplessly, "We are going to have to read and see."

**a woman in an old-fashioned Southern belle dress, standing in an oceanside park with palm trees; a bull with the face of a bearded man, rising out of a river; and two giants in matching yellow togas, hoisting a rope on a pulley system, lifting a large bronze vase out of a pit.**

"They sound like twins." Annabeth said thoughtfully. "Like in Ella's prophecy."

**Then came the worst vision: she saw herself with Jason and Percy, standing waist-deep in water at the bottom of a dark circular chamber, like a giant well. Ghostly shapes moved through the water as it rose rapidly. Piper clawed at the walls, trying to escape, but there was nowhere to go. The water reached their chests. Jason was pulled under. Percy stumbled and disappeared.**

Percy looked panicked, "I can breathe underwater. How can I drown?"

"This doesn't make sense." Annabeth cried out, frustrated that she didn't have any answers.

**How could a child of the sea god drown?**

"That's what I'm wondering." Percy sighed.

**Piper didn't know, but she watched herself in the vision, alone and thrashing in the dark, until the water rose over her head.**

**Piper shut her eyes. Don't show me that again, she pleaded. Show me something helpful.**

**She forced herself to look at the blade again.**

**This time, she saw an empty highway cutting between fields of wheat and sunflowers. A mileage marker read: TOPEKA 32. On the shoulder of the road stood a man in khaki shorts and a purple camp shirt. His face was lost in the shadow of a broad hat, the brim wreathed in leafy vines. He held up a silver goblet and beckoned to Piper. Somehow she knew he was offering her some sort of gift—a cure, or an antidote.**

"For what?" Frank asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Piper shrugged.

**"Hey," Jason croaked.**

**Piper was so startled she dropped the knife. "You're awake!"**

**"Don't sound so surprised." Jason touched his bandaged head and frowned. "What … what happened? I remember the explosions, and —"**

"So you don't remember a brick hitting you in the face?" Leo grinned.

"Guess not." Jason said sounding relieved.

**"You remember who I am?"**

**Jason tried to laugh, but it turned into a painful wince. "Last I checked, you were my awesome girlfriend Piper. Unless something has changed since I was out?"**

"Nope, still your girlfriend." Piper grinned, letting her own worries drift away.

**Piper was so relieved she almost sobbed. She helped him sit up and gave him some nectar to sip while she brought him up to speed. She was just explaining Leo's plan to fix the ship when she heard horse hooves clomping across the deck over their heads.**

**Moments later, Leo and Hazel stumbled to a stop in the doorway, carrying a large sheet of hammered bronze between them.**

**"Gods of Olympus." Piper stared at Leo. "What happened to you?"**

"Long story." Leo laughed.

**His hair was greased back. He had welding goggles on his forehead, a lipstick mark on his cheek,**

**tattoos all over his arms, and a T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO.**

**"Long story," he said. "Others back?"**

"Look, I agree with myself!" Leo smiled.

"Leo, all that proves is that both versions of you are weird." Piper pointed out.

"True." Leo agreed.

**"Not yet," Piper said.**

**Leo cursed. Then he noticed Jason sitting up, and his face brightened. "Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room."**

"Nice chat." Jason mumbled.

**He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel in the doorway.**

**Piper raised an eyebrow at her. "Team Leo?"**

**"We met Narcissus," Hazel said, which didn't really explain much. "Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess."**

"That will just confuse me more." Piper frowned.

"Well, it really is a long story." Hazel shrugged.

**Jason sighed. "I miss all the fun."**

"I wouldn't call it fun." Hazel disagreed.

"It sounds better than getting knocked out by a brick." Jason argued.

**On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed. Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall. Percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair.**

**Percy's shirt was covered in it.**

"Our adventure sounds fun too." Percy cheered.

"Again, I don't think fun is the right word." Hazel said.

**"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.**

**Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.**

**"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said.**

"I didn't even know tar monsters existed." Percy said.

"Me neither." Annabeth admitted, "and I don't think we will get to see what they're like. I have a feeling our tar monster adventure won't be included in the story."

**"Hey, Jason, glad you're awake. Hazel, where's Leo?"**

**She pointed down. "Engine room."**

**Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.**

"That doesn't sound good." Piper frowned.

**"Uh, what was that?" he demanded.**

**"Oh …" Hazel looked embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like … all of them."**

"They came after us? We have to hurry." Leo yelled panicky.

"Leo, calm down. There isn't anything we could do." Piper said, adding a little charmspeak into her words. It obviously worked, because Leo's breathing slowed down.

**"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Annabeth. "You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."**

**"On it!" Frank promised.**

**The three of them ran off, leaving Hazel at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.**

Annabeth winced, "I can't imagine being seasick on this type of quest. You are really brave for even coming."

"Thanks." Hazel attempted to smile.

**"I'll just …" She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off.**

**Jason and Piper stayed below as the ship rocked back and forth. For a hero, Piper felt pretty useless. Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above deck—Percy shouting, Coach Hedge yelling at the lake. Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times. Down the hall, Hazel moaned miserably in her cabin. In the engine room below, it sounded like Leo and the others were doing an Irish line dance with anvils tied to their feet.**

"Too bad that's not what's going on." Leo sighed. "That would have been so cool."

**After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and Piper felt the ship lift into the air.**

**The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. Finally Leo emerged from the engine room. He was caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. The TEAM LEO on his chest now read: AM LEO.**

"Now I need a new shirt." Leo frowned.

**But he grinned like a madman and announced that they were safely under way.**

"Why, on _earth _are you grinning?" Piper asked.

"We are alive, aren't we?" Leo asked.

**"Meeting in the mess hall, one hour," he said. "Crazy day, huh?"**

**After everyone had cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and the demigods gathered below for dinner. It was the first time they'd all sat down together—just the seven of them. Maybe their presence should've reassured Piper, but seeing all of them in one place only reminded her that the Prophecy of Seven was unfolding at last. No more waiting for Leo to finish the ship. No more easy days at Camp Half-Blood, pretending the future was still a long way off. They were under way, with a bunch of angry Romans behind them and the ancient lands ahead. The giants would be waiting. Gaea was rising. And unless they succeeded in this quest, the world would be destroyed.**

"That sounds like a lot of pressure." Somebody grinned. "I'm glad that's not me."

"You are definitely not helping when you say that." Jason pointed out.

**The others must've felt it too. The tension in the mess hall was like an electrical storm brewing, which was totally possible, considering Percy's and Jason's powers.**

**In an awkward moment, the two boys tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table.**

Percy and Jason both winced and glance at each other. They had both always been the leader wherever they were, they weren't used to fighting to lead.

**Sparks literally flew from Jason's hands. After a brief silent standoff, like they were both thinking, Seriously, dude?, they ceded the chair to Annabeth and sat at opposite sides of the table.**

"That makes sense." Percy agreed.

**The crew compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even Leo's ridiculous story about how he tricked Narcissus wasn't enough to cheer up the group.**

**"So where to now?" Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."**

**Percy was eating a piece of pie, which for some reason was completely blue— filling, crust, even the whipped cream.**

Percy and Annabeth smiled at each other, both of them aware nobody knew what the joke was. Nobody was phased by their secret joke, they were used to it by now.

**"We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," he said. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."**

**That didn't improve the mood around the table. Piper didn't want to say anything, but she felt obliged … and a little guilty. "I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe—maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak."**

**Jason took her hand. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Or Leo's," he added quickly. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."**

"See," Jason said smugly. "I have the right idea."

"You are just as bad as Leo." Piper said amused.

**Piper was grateful for his support, but she still felt uneasy. "Maybe if we could explain that, though—"**

**"With no proof?" Annabeth asked. "And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."**

"They would kill us in a heartbeat." Annabeth grumbled.

**"She's right," Hazel said. She still looked a little queasy from seasickness, but she was trying to eat a few saltine crackers. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies, and Piper was pretty sure they hadn't been there at the beginning of the meal. "Reyna might listen, but Octavian won't. The Romans have honor to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions post hac."**

All of the Romans looked around awkwardly, they wanted to argue but they knew it was true.

**Piper stared at her own dinner. The magical plates could conjure up a great selection of vegetarian stuff. She especially liked the avocado and grilled pepper quesadilla, but tonight she didn't have much of an appetite.**

**She thought about the visions she'd seen in her knife: Jason with golden eyes; the bull with the human head; the two giants in yellow togas hoisting a bronze jar from a pit. Worst of all, she remembered herself drowning in black water.**

Percy winced, what he was feeling sounded way too similar to how Piper was feeling.

Annabeth, who always seemed to know when Percy needed support, leaned into his side. Percy's arm automatically wrapped around Annabeth's waist, like it was the most natural

**Piper had always liked the water.**

**She had good memories of surfing with her dad. But since she'd started seeing that vision in Katoptris, she'd been thinking more and more of an old Cherokee story her granddad used to tell to keep her away from the river near his cabin. He told her the Cherokees believed in good water spirits, like the naiads of the Greeks; but they also believed in evil water spirits, the water cannibals, who hunted mortals with invisible arrows and were especially fond of drowning small children.**

"That's terrifying." Jason frowned.

"I guess it kind of prepared me for all the things I go through now." Piper shrugged.

**"You're right," she decided. "We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."**

**Hazel nodded. "Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed."**

"That doesn't give us a lot of time." Frank sighed.

"We should all be used to not having a lot of time by now." Percy said.

**Jason frowned. "You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?"**

**"I think," Hazel said. "But if so, that's not much time."**

**"Why six days?" Percy wondered. "And how are they going to destroy Rome?"**

"I'm not sure I want to know." Hazel grimaced.

**No one answered. Piper didn't want to add further bad news, but she felt she had to.**

Annabeth nodded, "You have to be completely honest with us."

**"There's more," she said. "I've been seeing some things in my knife."**

**The big kid, Frank, froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. "Things such as …?"**

**"They don't really make sense," Piper said, "just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."**

**Annabeth stared at the magical video feed from Camp Half-Blood on the wall. Right now it showed the living room in the Big House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel.**

Percy sighed as he thought about his home. Annabeth, noticing his homesickness whispered, "Don't worry. We'll be back soon."

**"Twins, like in Ella's prophecy," Annabeth said. "If we could figure out those lines, it might help."**

**"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," Percy said. "The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that's got to mean you. Juno told me … well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she's wrong."**

"I'm glad you have faith in me." Annabeth attempted to smile.

**Annabeth took a long breath. "Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors—something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."**

"If she knows, Jason probably knows." Percy pointed out, but Jason didn't say anything. Instead, he glanced at Reyna, who wasn't acknowledging it.

**Leo and Hazel exchanged nervous looks.**

**"Nemesis mentioned something similar," Leo said. "She talked about an old score that had to be settled—"**

**"The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony," Hazel recalled. "'An old wrong finally avenged.'"**

"That's obviously important." Piper sighed.

**Percy drew a frowny face in his blue whipped cream. "I was only a praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?"**

**Jason was still holding Piper's hand. His fingers had turned clammy.**

"It sounds like you might know something." Piper whispered to Jason.

"Not right now." Jason said, and Piper nodded.

**"I … uh, I'm not sure," he said. "I'll give it some thought."**

**Percy narrowed his eyes. "You're not sure?"**

"I'm pretty sure that's not something you would have to think about." Percy said, but Jason, who was looking sick, didn't respond.

**Jason didn't respond. Piper wanted to ask him what was wrong. She could tell he didn't want to discuss this old legend. She caught his eye, and he pleaded silently, Later.**

**Hazel broke the silence. "What about the other lines?" She turned her ruby-encrusted plate. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death."**

**"Giants' bane stands gold and pale," Frank added, "Won through pain from a woven jail."**

Annabeth winced, "For some reason, I _really _don't like that line."

Percy grimaced, "Me neither."

**"Giants' bane," Leo said. "Anything that's a giants' bane is good for us, right? That's probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods get their schizophrenic act together, that's good."**

**Percy nodded. "We can't kill the giants without the help of the gods."**

"We need to cooperate if the gods are going to stop being so schizophrenic." Annabeth groaned.

**Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. "I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god's help, just the two of you."**

"He's special." Frank replied.

**"Alcyoneus was a special case," Frank said. "He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn—Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but …" He shrugged. "Percy's right, we'll need the gods."**

**Piper gazed at the walls. She really wished Leo hadn't enchanted them with images of Camp Half-Blood. It was like a doorway to home that she could never go through. She watched the hearth of Hestia burning in the middle of the green as the cabins turned off their lights for curfew.**

"At least I'll be able to see it." Percy looked away wistfully, while the Romans wondered what was so special.

**She wondered how the Roman demigods, Frank and Hazel, felt about those images. They'd never even been to Camp Half-Blood. Did it seem alien to them, or unfair that Camp Jupiter wasn't represented? Did it make them miss their own home?**

Frank and Hazel glanced at each other, both of them taking in that thought.

**The other lines of the prophecy turned in Piper's mind. What was a woven jail? How could twins snuff out an angel's breath? The key to endless death didn't sound very cheerful, either.**

"It's just a very un-cheerful prophecy." Percy said.

**"So …" Leo pushed his chair away from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs."**

**"Someplace close to a city," Annabeth suggested, "in case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?"**

"Nope, none." Percy said unhelpfully.

**No one spoke. Piper remembered her vision in the knife: the strange man in purple, holding out a goblet and beckoning to her. He'd been standing in front of a sign that read TOPEKA 32.**

**"Well," she ventured, "how do you guys feel about Kansas?"**

"Piper you're next." Leo said as he tossed the book to her.

"I already read!" Piper protested.

"C'mon! It will be more realistic if you read your own thoughts." Leo begged.

"Fine." Piper rolled her eyes as she opened the book to the right page.

**A/N: Question of the Chapter: What floor is Mt. Olympus on? This is an easy one!**


	12. Piper X

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to I am that Writer. You guessed the answer right! As a reward, I reviewed one of their stories. Guess what you guys? I HAVE A THOUSAND REVIEWS! I honestly have the best readers ever. It probably seems like I don't appreciate you guys at all, but you inspire me every single day. I LOVE YOU ALL! Also, I realized a plot error. Nico only has a few days to live and they're taking time to read this book, so lets assume that they read super fast and they finish in one day. Okay? That means no night-time breaks! And I know I'm updating super slowly. I'm trying to work on that, but this chapter is super long. I'm also 15 now and driving. Wish me luck. I need it.  
**

**"Piper X," **Piper read.

**Piper had trouble falling asleep.**

"I'm pretty sure all of us are going to have problems falling asleep." Jason sighed.

**Coach Hedge spent the first hour after curfew doing his nightly duty, walking up and down the passageway yelling, "Lights out! Settle down! Try to sneak out, and I'll smack you back to Long Island!"**

**He banged his baseball bat against a cabin door whenever he heard a noise, shouting at everyone to go to sleep, which made it impossible for anyone to go to sleep.**

"He's doing more harm than good." Percy laughed.

"I don't know why you're laughing," Annabeth smiled as she poked him in the side. "You are going to have to be dealing with that too."

Percy slowly seemed to be realizing this, as his smile turned into a frown.

**Piper figured this was the most fun the satyr had had since he'd pretended to be a gym teacher at the Wilderness School.**

**She stared at the bronze beams on the ceiling. Her cabin was pretty cozy. Leo had programmed their quarters to adjust automatically to the occupant's preferred temperature, so it was never too cold or too hot.**

"That sounds nice." Gwen smiled.

"Yeah it is." Piper agreed. "Leo's honestly a genius."

Leo smiled at her genuinely. People didn't usually give him compliments on anything.

**The mattress and the pillows were stuffed with pegasus down (no pegasi were harmed in the making of these products, Leo had assured her),**

"How did you get the down then?" Percy asked curiously.

Leo shrugged. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

**so they were über-comfortable. A bronze lantern hung from the ceiling, glowing at whatever brightness Piper wished. The lantern's sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across her walls.**

**Piper had so many things on her mind, she thought she'd never sleep. But there was something peaceful about the rocking of the boat and the drone of the aerial oars as they scooped through the sky.**

"Anyone could sleep on that ship." Annabeth smiled dreamily.

"It's that comfortable?" Percy smiled.

"It's more comfortable than you can imagine." Annabeth nodded. "You'll see tonight."

"I'm sure you'll give him a full tour of his bed, Annabeth." Leo winked, but quickly wished he hadn't after seeing Annabeth's and Percy's glare. It was bad enough with just Annabeth, but with Percy combined, Leo wished he was anywhere else. Although, it was slightly less scary combined with the bright blush on both of their cheeks.

"Leo! That isn't funny." Annabeth protested.

"It was just a joke!" Leo yelled as he put his arms in front of his face. "Please don't hurt me!"

Percy got a mischevious glimmer in his eyes, "Watch your back, Valdez."

Leo gulped, and quickly turned toward Piper, urging her to keep reading.

**Finally her eyelids got heavy, and she drifted off.**

**It seemed like only a few seconds had passed before she woke to the breakfast bell.**

Percy looked down as his stomach grumbled. "I'm hungry!"

"I'm thirsty." Dakota complained. "I'm all out of kool-aid."

"We will take a quick break after this chapter." Reyna conceded.

Percy threw his fist up in the air and cheered while Annabeth rolled her eyes an amusement.

"Sit down, Seaweed Brain. You're embarrasing yourself." she laughed. Percy smiled and plopped back down in his seat next to Annabeth.

"As long as you still love me." He grinned.

"You know I always will." She rolled her eyes and kissed him on the cheek, making Percy look like the happiest person alive.

**"Yo, Piper!" Leo knocked on her door. "We're landing!"**

**"Landing?" She sat up groggily.**

**Leo opened her door and poked his head in. He had his hand over his eyes, which would've been a nice gesture if he hadn't been peeking through his fingers.**

A lot of the guys laughed, while the girls all glared. Leo shrugged sheepishly as Piper glared at him, but didn't pause in the reading.

**"You decent?"**

**"Leo!"**

**"Sorry." He grinned. "Hey, nice Power Ranger jammies."**

"You have Power Ranger jammies?" somebody asked.

"No, of course not." Piper said. "They're Cherokee eagles!"

"Oh, sure." they replied.

**"They are not Power Rangers! They're Cherokee eagles!"**

**"Yeah, sure. Anyway, we're setting down a few miles outside Topeka, as requested. And, um …" He glanced out in the passageway, then leaned inside again. "Thanks for not hating me, about blowing up the Romans yesterday."**

"That wasn't even your fault." Jason groaned.

**Piper rubbed her eyes. The feast in New Rome had been only yesterday? "That's okay, Leo. You weren't in control of yourself."**

**"Yeah, but still … you didn't have to stick up for me."**

**"Are you kidding? You're like the annoying little brother I never had. Of course I'll stick up for you."**

"Is that a compliment?" Leo asked.

Piper shrugged, choosing not to answer him.

**"Uh … thanks?"**

**From above, Coach Hedge yelled, "Thar she blows! Kansas, ahoy!"**

**"Holy Hephaestus," Leo muttered. "He really needs to work on his shipspeak. I'd better get above deck."**

"I like it." Percy laughed.

"Of course you do." Annabeth shook her head as she smiled and leaned into his side.

**By the time Piper had showered, changed, and grabbed a bagel from the mess hall, she could hear the ship's landing gear extending. She climbed on deck and joined the others as the Argo II settled in the middle of a field of sunflowers. The oars retracted. The gangplank lowered itself.**

**The morning air smelled of irrigation, warm plants, and fertilized earth. Not a bad smell. It reminded Piper of Grandpa Tom's place in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, back on the reservation.**

**Percy was the first to notice her. He smiled in greeting, which for some reason surprised Piper.**

"Why?" Percy frowned.

Piper shrugged sheepishly. "I don't know. I guess because I didn't really know you that well."

"That makes sense I guess." Percy conceded.

**He was wearing faded jeans and a fresh orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, as if he'd never been away from the Greek side. The new clothes had probably helped his mood—and of course the fact that he was standing at the rail with his arm around Annabeth.**

Percy smiled as he thought about how much that Annabeth could change his mood. He missed her more than he had ever missed anything else in his life.

"It's glad to be back." He grinned as he looked down at her.

**Piper was happy to see Annabeth with a sparkle in her eyes, because Piper had never had a better friend.**

"You are a really good friend." Piper agreed with her book self's thoughts.

"You too." Annabeth agreed.

**For months, Annabeth had been tormenting herself, her every waking moment consumed with the search for Percy. Now, despite the dangerous quest they were facing, at least she had her boyfriend back.**

Percy frowned as he heard about what she went through. He didn't want her to be in pain because of him.

"I'm so sorry." He sighed.

"You should be." she teased. "It wasn't only me who missed you. Everyone did. The hunters were looking for you. Grover was looking for you. Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary...we all need you."

Many people couldn't help but be jealous at that. None of them would have everyone looking for them if they disappeared.

**"So!" Annabeth plucked the bagel out of Piper's hand and took a bite,**

"That's rude." somebody frowned.

"It's a joke." Piper smiled.

**but that didn't bother Piper. Back at camp, they'd had a running joke about stealing each other's breakfast.**

"How did that start?" Jason wondered.

"It's a long story!" Piper started laughing uncontrollably.

"Too long to tell now." Annabeth said as she joined Piper in laughter.

**"Here we are. What's the plan?"**

**"I want to check out the highway," Piper said. "Find the sign that says Topeka 32."**

**Leo spun his Wii controller in a circle, and the sails lowered themselves. "We shouldn't be far," he said. "Festus and I calculated the landing as best we could. What do you expect to find at the mile marker?"**

**Piper explained what she'd seen in the knife—the man in purple with a goblet. She kept quiet about the other images, though, like the vision of Percy, Jason, and herself drowning.**

Again, Percy shivered at that. What was more terrifying than drowing when your whole life you have been able to breathe underwater?

**She wasn't sure what it meant, anyway; and everyone seemed in such better spirits this morning, she didn't want to ruin the mood.**

**"Purple shirt?" Jason asked. "Vines on his hat? Sounds like Bacchus."**

**"Dionysus," Percy muttered. "If we came all the way to Kansas to see Mr. D—"**

Everyone in the clearing looked at the sky nervously.

"Are you crazy?" Octavian hissed at Percy.

Percy rolled his eyes. "He won't hurt me. Right Mr. D?"

After seeing no lighting, everyone decided that the best thing to do was to continue with the story before something did happen.

**"Bacchus isn't so bad," Jason said. "I don't like his followers much .…"**

**Piper shuddered. Jason, Leo, and she had had an encounter with the maenads a few months ago and almost gotten torn to pieces.**

"That sounds interesting." Percy grinned.

"It isn't." Jason disagreed.

**"But the god himself is okay," Jason continued.**

**"I did him a favor once up in the wine country."**

**Percy looked appalled. "Whatever, man. Maybe he's better on the Roman side. But why would he be hanging around in Kansas? Didn't Zeus order the gods to cease all contact with mortals?"**

"Still not my favorite god on either side." Percy grimaced.

**Frank grunted. The big guy was wearing a blue tracksuit this morning, like he was ready to go for a jog in the sunflowers.**

Frank frowned. "Your thought of me aren't very flattering, are they?"

Leo shrugged. "Sorry, I can't control them."

**"The gods haven't been very good at following that order," he noted. "Besides, if the gods have gone schizophrenic like Hazel said—"**

**"And Leo said," added Leo.**

**Frank scowled at him. "Then who knows what's going on with the Olympians? Could be some pretty bad stuff out there."**

"It's going to be bad." Percy agreed. "It always is."

**"Sounds dangerous!" Leo agreed cheerfully. "Well … you guys have fun. I've got to finish repairs on the hull. Coach Hedge is gonna work on the broken crossbows. And, uh, Annabeth—I could really use your help. You're the only other person who even sort of understands engineering."**

**Annabeth looked apologetically at Percy. "He's right. I should stay and help."**

**"I'll come back to you." He kissed her on the cheek. "Promise."**

"I'm never leaving you again." Percy whispered into her ear, making her shiver.

**They were so easy together, it made Piper's heart ache.**

**Jason was great, of course. But sometimes he acted so distant, like last night, when he'd been reluctant to talk about that old Roman legend. So often he seemed to be thinking of his old life at Camp Jupiter. Piper wondered if she would ever be able to break through that barrier.**

Reyna looked at Jason thoughtfully, maybe there was still a chance that he would return to Camp Jupiter, to _her. _Piper looked at the ground awkwardly. These were her private thoughts. Nobody should be listening to them. Jason looked at Piper and furrowed his eyebrows.

"We need to talk. There's a break after this chapter. Can we talk then?" He whispered to her and she nodded, trying to ignore all of the gossiping Romans around her.

**The trip to Camp Jupiter, seeing Reyna in person, hadn't helped. Neither did the fact that Jason had chosen to wear a purple shirt today—the color of the Romans.**

Jason looked down. He wanted to say it must be a coincedence, but wasn't about to lie to her.

**Frank slid his bow off his shoulder and propped it against the rail. "I think I should turn into a crow or something and fly around, keep an eye out for Roman eagles."**

**"Why a crow?" Leo asked. "Man, if you can turn into a dragon, why don't you just turn into a dragon every time? That's the coolest."**

"Using your powers are tiring." Percy answered. "If I could use my strongest powers all the time, don't you think I would?"

"I guess." Leo shrugged.

**Frank's face looked like it was being infused with cranberry juice. "That's like asking why you don't bench-press your maximum weight every time you lift. Because it's hard, and you'd hurt yourself. Turning into a dragon isn't easy."**

"That's also a good way of putting it." Percy agreed.

**"Oh." Leo nodded. "I wouldn't know. I don't lift weights."**

**"Yeah. Well, maybe you should consider it, Mr.—"**

"I sense a little tension." Percy whispered to Annabeth.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Everyone senses the tension, Seaweed Brain."

**Hazel stepped between them.**

**"I'll help you, Frank," she said, shooting Leo an evil look. "I can summon Arion and scout around below."**

**"Sure," Frank said, still glaring at Leo. "Yeah, thanks."**

Frank and Leo were both glaring at each other.

"You guys promised not to fight." Hazel pointed out.

"Yeah, sorry." Frank frowned as he looked away from Leo.

"Won't happen again." Leo continued, as he looked away from Frank.

**Piper wondered what was going on with those three. The boys showing off for Hazel and razzing each other—that she understood. But it almost seemed like Hazel and Leo had a history. So far as she knew, they'd met for the first time just yesterday. She wondered if something else had happened on their trip to the Great Salt Lake—something they hadn't mentioned.**

**Hazel turned to Percy. "Just be careful when you go out there. Lots of fields, lots of crops. Could be karpoi on the loose."**

Percy shivered, "I hope not."

**"Karpoi?" Piper asked.**

**"Grain spirits," Hazel said. "You don't want to meet them."**

**Piper didn't see how a grain spirit could be so bad, but Hazel's tone convinced her not to ask.**

"Now I know." Piper grimaced.

**"That leaves three of us to check on the mile marker," Percy said. "Me, Jason, Piper. I'm not psyched about seeing Mr. D again. That guy is a pain.**

**But, Jason, if you're on better terms with him—"**

**"Yeah," Jason said. "If we find him, I'll talk to him. Piper, it's your vision. You should take the lead."**

**Piper shivered. She'd seen the three of them drowning in that dark well. Was Kansas where it would happen? That didn't seem right, but she couldn't be sure.**

"Great, so at least we won't die in Kansas." Percy said sarcastically.

**"Of course," she said, trying to sound upbeat. "Let's find the highway."**

**Leo had said they were close. His idea of "close" needed some work.**

Jason, Percy, and Piper glared at Leo.

"If it's more than a mile I'm slapping you." Piper warned him.

**After trudging half a mile through hot fields, getting bitten by mosquitoes and whacked in the face with scratchy sunflowers, they finally reached the road. An old billboard for Bubba's Gas 'n' Grub indicated they were still forty miles from the first Topeka exit.**

"Leo!" Piper yelled. "What's wrong with you? That's eight miles!"

"I didn't do that." Leo defended himself. "This didn't happen yet."

"You're right." Piper agreed. "But when it does happen you better watch out."

**"Correct my math," Percy said, "but doesn't that mean we have eight miles to walk?"**

**Jason peered both ways down the deserted road. He looked better today, thanks to the magical healing of ambrosia and nectar. His color was back to normal, and the scar on his forehead had almost vanished. The new gladius that Hera had given him last winter hung at his belt. Most guys would look pretty awkward walking around with a scabbard strapped to their jeans, but on Jason it seemed perfectly natural.**

"Probably because I'm used to carrying weapons." Jason nodded.

"I was thinking because you look good in anything." Piper smiled.

"Oh, really?" Jason grinned. "So you wouldn't mind if I walked around in garbage?"

"Don't go too far Sparky. I'm still a daugher of Aphrodite." Piper laughed.

**"No cars …" he said. "But I guess we wouldn't want to hitchhike."**

**"No," Piper agreed, gazing nervously down the highway. "We've already spent too much time going overland. The earth is Gaea's territory."**

**"Hmm …" Jason snapped his fingers. "I can call a friend for a ride."**

**Percy raised his eyebrows. "Oh, yeah? Me too. Let's see whose friend gets here first."**

"Do you have to turn everything into a competition?" Annabeth groaned.

Percy shrugged sheepishly, "Sorry."

**Jason whistled. Piper knew what he was doing, but he'd succeeded in summoning Tempest only three times since they'd met the storm spirit at the Wolf House last winter.**

**Today, the sky was so blue, Piper didn't see how it could work.**

"So you're taking a chance, are you?" Percy raised his eyebrows.

"No." Jason said stubbornly. "He'll come."

**Percy simply closed his eyes and concentrated.**

**Piper hadn't studied him up close before. After hearing so much at Camp Half-Blood about Percy Jackson this and Percy Jackson that, she thought he looked … well, unimpressive, especially next to Jason. **

"Wow, thanks Piper." Percy frowned in fake sadness. "I thought you were my friend."

"Oh, you thought wrong." Piper said trying to stay serious, but you could see the edge of her lip twitching as she tried not to smile.

"I think she's just being biased." A daughter of Venus said. "I mean, who wouldn't want to jump that?"

"Excuse me?" Percy and Annabeth asked simultaneously.

The daughter of Venus shrugged. "I'm not going to lie. Percy's hot."

"And he also has a girlfriend so watch what you say!" Annabeth glared at the daughter of Venus, who quickly backed off.

"Someone's jealous." Percy laughed.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth shoved him lightly.

"Whatever you say, Wise Girl." he smiled.

**Percy was more slender, about an inch shorter, with slightly longer, much darker hair.**

**He wasn't really Piper's type. If she'd seen him in the mall somewhere, she probably would've thought he was a skater—cute in a scruffy way, a little on the wild side, definitely a troublemaker.**

"That sounds like Percy." Annabeth agreed.

"I don't even know how to skateboard." Percy protested.

"That's not the point." Annabeth laughed.

**She would have steered clear. She had enough trouble in her life. But she could see why Annabeth liked him, and she could definitely see why Percy needed Annabeth in his life. If anybody could keep a guy like that under control, it was Annabeth.**

"Opposites attract." Piper smiled.

**Thunder crackled in the clear sky.**

**Jason smiled. "Soon."**

**"Too late." Percy pointed east, where a black winged shape was spiraling toward them. At first, Piper thought it might be Frank in crow form. Then she realized it was much too big to be a bird.**

"Blackjack." Percy grinned. "He got there first."

"You win this round, Jackson." Jason frowned.

**"A black pegasus?" she said. "Never seen one like that."**

**The winged stallion came in for a landing. He trotted over to Percy and nuzzled his face, then turned his head inquisitively toward Piper and Jason.**

**"Blackjack," Percy said, "this is Piper and Jason. They're friends."**

**The horse nickered.**

**"Uh, maybe later," Percy answered.**

"He probably wants donuts." Percy rolled his eyes.

**Piper had heard that Percy could speak to horses, being the son of the horse lord Poseidon, but she'd never seen it in action.**

**"What does Blackjack want?" she asked.**

**"Donuts," Percy said. "Always donuts. He can carry all three of us if—"**

"I knew it." Percy laughed.

**Suddenly the air turned cold. Piper's ears popped. About fifty yards away, a miniature cyclone three stories tall tore across the tops of the sunflowers like a scene from The Wizard of Oz. It touched down on the road next to Jason and took the form of a horse—a misty steed with lightning flickering through its body.**

**"Tempest," Jason said, grinning broadly. "Long time, my friend."**

"That doesn't sound very safe." Percy frowned.

"It's just as safe as a pegasus." Jason argued.

**The storm spirit reared and whinnied. Blackjack backed up skittishly.**

**"Easy, boy," Percy said. "He's a friend too." He gave Jason an impressed look. "Nice ride, Grace."**

**Jason shrugged. "I made friends with him during our fight at the Wolf House. He's a free spirit, literally, but once in a while he agrees to help me."**

"What if he didn't that time? That would be embarrasing." Percy laughed.

**Percy and Jason climbed on their respective horses. Piper had never been comfortable with Tempest. Riding full gallop on a beast that could vaporize at any moment made her a bit nervous.**

**Nevertheless, she accepted Jason's hand and climbed on.**

"See, that would be scary." Percy shivered.

**Tempest raced down the road with Blackjack soaring overhead. Fortunately, they didn't pass any cars, or they might have caused a wreck. In no time, they arrived at the thirty-two-mile marker, which looked exactly as Piper had seen it in her vision.**

**Blackjack landed. Both horses pawed the asphalt. Neither looked pleased to have stopped so suddenly, just when they'd found their stride.**

**Blackjack whinnied.**

"Can you talk to any other animals?" Piper asked.

"Some sea creatures." Percy answered. "I can talk to Tyson underwater through our thoughts."

"That's really cool." Jason smiled.

"Thanks." Percy responded.

**"You're right," Percy said. "No sign of the wine dude."**

**"I beg your pardon?" said a voice from the fields.**

**Tempest turned so quickly, Piper almost fell off.**

**The wheat parted, and the man from her vision stepped into view. He wore a wide-brimmed hat wreathed in grapevines, a purple short-sleeved shirt, khaki shorts, and Birkenstocks with white socks. He looked maybe thirty, with a slight potbelly, like a frat boy who hadn't yet realized college was over.**

"I hope he hears this." Percy laughed. "That would be hilarious!"

"Maybe for you!" Piper said as her eyes got wide in fear.

**"Did someone just call me the wine dude?" he asked in a lazy drawl. "It's Bacchus, please. Or Mr. Bacchus. Or Lord Bacchus. Or, sometimes, Oh-My-Gods-Please-Don't-Kill-Me, Lord Bacchus."**

**Percy urged Blackjack forward, though the pegasus didn't seem happy about it.**

"Can't blame him." Percy grumbled.

**"You look different," Percy told the god. "Skinnier. Your hair is longer. And your shirt isn't so loud."**

"Do you want to die?" Leo asked.

"Don't try to stop him." Annabeth advised. "He's been talking to gods like this since he was 12. It isn't going to stop now."

**The wine god squinted up at him. "What in blazes are you talking about? Who are you, and where is Ceres?"**

**"Uh … what series?"**

"Why don't you ever hear anything right?" Annabeth smiled at Percy.

"I blame the words. They all sound similar to other words." Percy frowned.

"That's very true." Leo agreed.

**"I think he means Ceres," Jason said. "The goddess of agriculture. You'd call her Demeter." He nodded respectfully to the god. "Lord Bacchus, do you remember me? I helped you with that missing leopard in Sonoma."**

**Bacchus scratched his stubbly chin. "Ah…yes. John Green."**

"I love John Green!" Annabeth smiled. "He's an amazing author."

"I agree." Reyna said. "My favorite book is _The Fault in our Stars._"

"I prefer _Looking for Alaska._" Annabeth disagreed. "But both are amazing."

"That's something we can both agree on." Reyna smiled slightly.

**"Jason Grace."**

"So he has a problem with names in both forms...interesting.." Percy said thoughtfully.

**"Whatever," the god said. "Did Ceres send you, then?"**

**"No, Lord Bacchus," Jason said. "Were you expecting to meet her here?"**

**The god snorted. "Well, I didn't come to Kansas to party, my boy. Ceres asked me here for a council of war. What with Gaea rising, the crops are withering. Droughts are spreading. The karpoi are in revolt. Even my grapes aren't safe. Ceres wanted a united front in the plant war."**

**"The plant war," Percy said. "You're going to arm all the little grapes with tiny assault rifles?"**

Annabeth shook her head. "Why am I not surprised you asked something like that?"

"Because you know me so well." Percy smiled, earning a kiss on the cheek from Annabeth.

**The god narrowed his eyes. "Have we met?"**

**"At Camp Half-Blood," Percy said, "I know you as Mr. D—Dionysus."**

**"Agh!" Bacchus winced and pressed his hands to his temples. For a moment, his image flickered. Piper saw a different person—fatter, dumpier, in a much louder, leopard-patterned shirt. Then Bacchus returned to being Bacchus. "Stop that!" he demanded. "Stop thinking about me in Greek!"**

**Percy blinked. "Uh, but—"**

**"Do you have any idea how hard it is to stay focused? Splitting headaches all the time! I never know what I'm doing or where I'm going! Constantly grumpy!"**

"I don't see a difference." Percy shrugged.

**"That sounds pretty normal for you," Percy said.**

"He's never going to help us!" Piper exclaimed.

"Sorry." Percy said sheepishly. "I can't help it."

**The god's nostrils flared. One of the grape leaves on his hat burst into flame. "If we know each other from that other camp, it's a wonder I haven't already turned you into a dolphin."**

**"It was discussed," Percy assured him. "I think you were just too lazy to do it."**

Jason was shaking his head. How was Percy still alive?

**Piper had been watching with horrified fascination, the way she might watch a car wreck in progress. Now she realized Percy was not making things better,**

"You didn't realize that before?" Annabeth asked. "I should probably be there. I'm usually the only one who can control him."

"I'll try to prevent it in the future." Percy apologized.

**and Annabeth wasn't around to rein him in. Piper figured her friend would never forgive her if she brought Percy back transformed into a sea mammal.**

**"Lord Bacchus!" she interrupted, slipping off Tempest's back.**

**"Piper, careful," Jason said.**

**She shot him a warning glance: I've got this.**

"Yeah, you should probably take the attention off of me." Percy rubbed the back of his neck.

**"Sorry to trouble you, my lord," she told the god, "but actually we came here to get your advice. Please, we need your wisdom."**

**She used her most agreeable tone, pouring respect into her charmspeak.**

"He's _so _going to fall for it." Percy laughed. "He loves when people compliment him."

**The god frowned, but the purple glow faded in his eyes. "You're well-spoken, girl. Advice, eh? Very well. I would avoid karaoke. Really, theme parties in general are out. In these austere times, people are looking for a simple, low-key affair, with locally produced organic snacks and—"**

"I told you." Percy said smugly.

"Nobody argued." Annabeth pointed out.

"Yeah, but nobody agreed either." Percy replied.

**"Not about parties," Piper interrupted.**

**"Although that's incredibly useful advice, Lord Bacchus. We were hoping you'd help us on our quest."**

"You're really laying it on thick." Jason smiled.

"We want him to help, don't we?" Piper shrugged.

**She explained about the Argo II and their voyage to stop the giants from awakening Gaea. She told him what Nemesis had said: that in six days, Rome would be destroyed. She described the vision reflected in her knife, where Bacchus offered her a silver goblet.**

**"Silver goblet?" The god didn't sound very excited. He grabbed a Diet Pepsi from nowhere and popped the top of the can.**

"Diet Pepsi?" Percy asked. "He drinks Diet Coke."

"Dionysus drinks Diet Coke." Annabeth said. "Bacchus drinks Diet Pepsi."

**"You drink Diet Coke," Percy said.**

**"I don't know what you're talking about," Bacchus snapped. "As to this vision of the goblet, young lady, I have nothing for you to drink unless you want a Pepsi. Jupiter has put me under strict orders to avoid giving wine to minors.**

"Too bad." Dakota sighed as all of the other demigods and legacies looked at him weirdly.

**Bothersome, but there you have it. As for the giants, I know them well. I fought in the first Giant War, you know."**

**"You can fight?" Percy asked.**

**Piper wished he hadn't sounded so incredulous.**

"Can't you say anything right?" Annabeth groaned. "You are going to get us all killed on this quest."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't let you die, Wise Girl." Percy smiled.

"That doesn't really help the rest of us." Leo frowned.

**Dionysus snarled. His Diet Pepsi transformed into a five-foot staff wreathed in ivy, topped with a pinecone.**

"Wow, I'm really scared of a pinecone." Percy said sarcastically.

"Well, you don't really need to say that in front of him." Piper pointed out.

**"A thyrsus!" Piper said, hoping to distract the god before he whacked Percy on the head.**

**She'd seen weapons like that before in the hands of crazy nymphs, and wasn't thrilled to see one again, but she tried to sound impressed. "Oh, what a mighty weapon!"**

**"Indeed," Bacchus agreed. "I'm glad someone in your group is smart. The pinecone is a fearsome tool of destruction!**

"Yes, it's absolutely terrifying." Percy laughed.

"I hope that for your sake, Dionysus isn't listening to this." Annabeth shook her head.

**I was a demigod myself in the first Giant War, you know. The son of Jupiter!"**

**Jason flinched. Probably he wasn't thrilled to be reminded that the Wine Dude was technically his big brother.**

"I remember when Thalia realized that." Percy laughed.

"Oh my gods!" Annabeth laughed, "She almost had a heart attack."

"I think she wanted do be disowned so she wasn't related to him." Percy said seriously.

**Bacchus swung his staff through the air, though his potbelly almost threw him off balance. "Of course that was long before I invented wine and became an immortal. I fought side by side with the gods and some other demigod … Harry Cleese, I think."**

**"Who's Harry Cleese?" Percy asked.**

"I've never heard of Harry Cleese." Jason said thoughtfully.

"I think he might be talking about Heracles." Annabeth said as she tried not to laugh.

"I think you might be right." Percy smiled.

**"Heracles?" Piper suggested politely.**

"He can't even get his name right?" Leo asked.

"He doesn't deserve it anyway." Percy glared.

"Um, why is that?" Leo asked.

"It doesn't matter. Just keep reading."

**"Whatever," Bacchus said. "Anyway, I killed the giant Ephialtes and his brother Otis. Horrible boors, those two. Pinecone in the face for both of them!"**

**Piper held her breath. All at once, several ideas came together in her head—the visions in the knife, the lines of the prophecy they'd been discussing the night before. She felt like she used to when she was scuba diving with her father, and he would wipe her mask for her underwater. Suddenly, everything was clearer.**

"Those are the twins in the prophecy!" Annabeth smiled. "Piper, you're a genius."

"Well, thanks but I don't think you should be smiling. We still need to find a god to help us defeat those giants." Piper pointed out.

"Sorry." Annabeth said sheepishly. "I just get excited when I figure something out."

"Yeah, I can tell." Piper laughed.

**"Lord Bacchus," she said, trying to control the nervousness in her voice. "Those two giants, Ephialtes and Otis … would they happen to be twins?"**

**"Hmm?" The god seemed distracted by his thyrsus-swinging, but he nodded. "Yes, twins. That's right."**

**Piper turned to Jason. She could tell he was following her thoughts: Twins snuff out the angel's breath.**

"This isn't good." Jason sighed. "This is a really hard quest so far."

"This is just the beginning." Percy said.

**In the blade of Katoptris, she'd seen two giants in yellow robes, lifting a jar from a deep pit.**

**"That's why we're here," Piper told the god. "You're part of our quest!"**

**Bacchus frowned. "I'm sorry, my girl. I'm not a demigod anymore. I don't do quests."**

**"But giants can only be killed by heroes and gods working together," she insisted. "You're a god now, and the two giants we have to fight are Ephialtes and Otis. I think … I think they're waiting for us in Rome. They're going to destroy the city somehow. The silver goblet I saw in my vision—maybe it's meant as a symbol for your help. You have to help us kill the giants!"**

"He's not going to like how you say that." Percy pointed out.

"It's better than what you've been saying." Piper replied.

**Bacchus glared at her, and Piper realized she'd chosen her words poorly.**

**"My girl," he said coldly, "I don't have to do anything. Besides, I only help those who give me proper tribute, which no one has managed to do in many, many centuries."**

**Blackjack whinnied uneasily.**

"What sort of tribute?" Annabeth asked, but nobody had an answer.

**Piper couldn't blame him. She didn't like the sound of tribute. She remembered the maenads, the crazed followers of Bacchus, who would tear up nonbelievers with their bare hands. And that was when they were in a good mood.**

**Percy voiced the question that she was too scared to ask. "What kind of tribute?"**

**Bacchus waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing you could handle, insolent Greek. But I will give you some free advice, since this girl does have some manners. Seek out Gaea's son, Phorcys. He always hated his mother, not that I can blame him. He didn't have much use for his siblings the twins, either. You'll find him in the city they named after that heroine—Atlanta."**

"Just so you realize, this is probably another trap." Leo stated.

"Whenever a god tells us something it's a trap." Jason shrugged. "I'm kind of used to it by now."

**Piper hesitated. "You mean Atlanta?"**

**"That's the one."**

**"But this Phorcys," Jason said. "Is he a giant? A Titan?"**

**Bacchus laughed. "Neither. Seek out the salt water."**

"In Atlanta?" Annabeth asked.

**"Salt water …" Percy said. "In Atlanta?"**

"Annabeth, you think like your boyfriend." Leo laughed.

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**"Yes," Bacchus said. "Are you hard of hearing?**

**If anyone can give you insight on Gaea and the twins, it's Phorcys. Just watch out for him."**

**"What do you mean?" Jason asked.**

"Yes, definitely a trap."

**The god glanced at the sun, which had climbed almost to high noon. "It's unlike Ceres to be late, unless she sensed something dangerous in this area. Or …"**

**The god's face suddenly went slack. "Or a trap. Well, I must be going! And if I were you, I'd do the same!"**

"If we have another fight already, I'll be pretty upset." Percy admitted.

**"Lord Bacchus, wait!" Jason protested.**

**The god shimmered and disappeared with a sound like a soda-can top being popped.**

**The wind rustled through the sunflowers. The horses paced in agitation. Despite the dry, hot day, Piper shivered. A cold feeling … Annabeth and Leo had both described a cold feeling .…**

Annabeth shivered, she could still feel it surrounding her.

**"Bacchus is right," she said. "We need to leave—"**

**Too late, said a sleepy voice, humming through the fields all around them and resonating in the ground at Piper's feet.**

"I'm really starting to hate Gaea." Piper growled.

"Really?" Leo asked, "I've hated her for a while."

**Percy and Jason drew their swords. Piper stood on the road between them, frozen with fear. The power of Gaea was suddenly everywhere. The sunflowers turned to look at them. The wheat bent toward them like a million scythes.**

**Welcome to my party, Gaea murmured. Her voice reminded Piper of corn growing—a crackling, hissing, hot and persistent noise she used to hear at Grandpa Tom's on those quiet nights in Oklahoma.**

"I have a really bad feeling about this." Annabeth grimaced.

**What did Bacchus say? the goddess mocked. A simple, low-key affair with organic snacks? Yes. For my snacks, I need only two: the blood of a female demigod, and the blood of a male. Piper, my dear, choose which hero will die with you.**

"Does she honestly expect me to choose that?" Piper asked. "She's crazy!"

**"Gaea!" Jason yelled. "Stop hiding in the wheat. Show yourself!"**

**Such bravado, Gaea hissed. But the other one, Percy Jackson, also has appeal. Choose, Piper McLean, or I will.**

**Piper's heart raced. Gaea meant to kill her. That was no surprise. But what was this about choosing one of the boys? Why would Gaea let either of them go? It had to be a trap.**

"Obviously." Leo rolled his eyes. "Isn't that what Bacchus just said?"

"Shut up, Valdez." Piper groaned. "It's not really the time."

**"You're insane!" she shouted. "I'm not choosing anything for you!"**

**Suddenly Jason gasped. He sat up straight in his saddle.**

"That's a little weird."

**"Jason!" Piper cried. "What's wrong—?"**

**He looked down at her, his expression deadly calm. His eyes were no longer blue. They glowed solid gold.**

Annabeth and Percy quickly looked at each other with worry before looking back at the book.

**"Percy, help!" Piper stumbled back from Tempest.**

**But Percy galloped away from them. He stopped thirty feet down the road and wheeled his pegasus around. He raised his sword and pointed the tip toward Jason.**

"Oh, no." Percy groaned. "We're being possesed."

"Are you sure?" Jason asked.

"What? Do you think I really want to kill you?" Percy raised his eyebrows.

"Sorry, wasn't thinking." Jason blushed.

**"One will die," Percy said, but the voice wasn't his.**

**It was deep and hollow, like someone whispering from inside the barrel of a cannon.**

"That's nothing like Percy's voice." Annabeth said shakily as she gripped Percy's arm tightly.

**"I will choose," Jason answered, in the same hollow voice.**

**"No!" Piper yelled.**

**All around her, the fields crackled and hissed, laughing in Gaea's voice as Percy and Jason charged at each other, their weapons ready.**

"Sorry if I hurt you Percy." Jason apologized.

"I won't be the one getting hurt." Percy narrowed his eyes.

"You guys are seriously fighting about this?" Annabeth asked. "C'mon Percy, there's food."

Percy was obviously convinced as he jumped up and ran towards the table.

**A/N: Question of the Chapter: What place/places did Percy not want to have his Achilles Heel? Sorry that the Romans don't talk much. It's hard to fit them in.**


	13. Break 2

**A/N: This has probably been the longest wait ever. I want to apologize but I'm not going to because it might happen again. I have finals and my sisters and I are really not getting along and I haven't talked to them in two weeks and I'm just really stressed. The first reviewer to guess right was TwinkleLights123.** **As a reward, I reviewed one of their stories.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own and of the words in bold or any of the characters.**

"Hey, Leo." Piper smiled as she jogged to catch up with him. He was already eating his food by the time she was able to get next to him.

"Hey." He replied slightly distracted as he was scooping food into his mouth. As he was replying, Jason caught up to them, slightly out of breath.

"Hey there." Jason said hesitantly. "Leo, Piper and I wanted to talk to you about something."

Leo, noticing Jason's serious tone, put his plate of food down and replied, "What do you want to talk about?"

Piper bit her lip, as she thought of the right way to say it, "We noticed that you feel left out now that we are dating. We donn't want you to feel like that. We didn't realize that you felt that way."

Leo smiled awkwardly, "It's no big deal."

"Yes, it is." Piper stated.

"Leo, you're my best friend. If we ever leave you out, it definitely isn't on purpose." Jason sighed. "To be completely honest, I thought you were too busy with the Argo II to hang out with us."

"I have been busy with the Argo II." Leo admitted. "I guess it's also my fault that we haven't been hanging out as much."

"I think it's all of our faults." Piper laughed. Jason and Leo smiled and nodded in agreement.

"How about we all promise to at least attempt to hang out more as a group." Jason suggested.

"I don't know if we will have much time." Piper pointed out. "The war with Gaia is very time consuming."

"After the war then." Jason said as he gave Piper a look.

"Sounds like a deal." Leo agreed, feeling very relieved.

"Deal." Piper agreed.

Percy grabbed his food and grabbed Annabeth's hand while he pulled her to a corner of the field.

"I really need some time away from everyone." he confessed.

"You aren't alone right now." Annabeth smirked.

"You know what I mean." Percy shook his head and smiled. "I just want to relax."

"That sounds perfect." Annabeth sighed in contentment as she took a sip of her lemonade.

"I missed you so much." Percy sighed as he laid down, put his head in her lap, and closed his eyes.

"I missed you too, Seaweed-Brain." Annabeth grinned and leaned back into a tree. They both quickly fell asleep as the warm, California air surrounded them. They were woken up one hour later by a sheepish Piper.

"Sorry guys, but we have to read." she apologized.

Percy sat up and stretched his arms out, "It's not your fault, Piper. We have to hurry up and finish reading."

Annabeth wiped the sleep out of her eyes. "Percy's right. Let's go."

"So, who's going to read next?" Annabeth asked.

"I will." Percy volunteered. "I need something to wake me up."

**A/N: I know it's short, but the break chapters are just filler chapters. Please forgive me for taking so long! Question of the chapter: What is cabin 9?**


	14. Piper XI

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Meegon. They answered the question first and as a reward I would have reviewed one of their stories but they didn't have any:( **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or any of the bold.**

**"Piper XI," **Percy read.

**If not for the horses, Piper would've died.**

"Thank the gods for the horses then." Jason smiled as he wrapped his arm around Piper's waist. Reyna, hearing what Jason said, turned away from Jason and winced. Annabeth shook her head at Jason's cluelessness after she noticed Reyna's obvious pain.

**Jason and Percy charged each other, but Tempest and Blackjack balked long enough for Piper to leap out of the way.**

**She rolled to the edge of the road and looked back, dazed and horrified, as the boys crossed swords, gold against bronze. Sparks flew. Their blades blurred—strike and parry—and the pavement trembled. The first exchange took only a second, but Piper couldn't believe the speed of their sword fighting. The horses pulled away from each other—Tempest thundering in protest, Blackjack flapping his wings.**

Many of the people in the clearing had faces filled with worry, but nobody had a more nervous and worried face than Percy or Jason. If one of them hurt the other...they didn't know what they would do.

**"Stop it!" Piper yelled.**

**For a moment, Jason heeded her voice. His golden eyes turned toward her, and Percy charged, slamming his blade into Jason.**

Percy winced, "Sorry."

Jason shrugged, "It hasn't happened yet. Anyway, I will probably hurt you and you might hurt you again so there's no use apologizing."

Percy nodded in agreement and continued reading.

**Thank the gods, Percy turned his sword—maybe on purpose, maybe accidentally—so the flat of it hit Jason's chest; but the impact was still enough to knock Jason off his mount.**

"Thanks." Jason said, knowing there was no way it was an accident.

"Don't mention it." Percy replied awkwardly.

**Blackjack cantered away as Tempest reared in confusion. The spirit horse charged into the sunflowers and dissipated into vapor.**

**Percy struggled to turn his pegasus around.**

**"Percy!" Piper yelled. "Jason's your friend. Drop your weapon!"**

**Percy's sword arm dipped. Piper might have been able to bring him under control, but unfortunately Jason got to his feet.**

"I can't control both of them at the same time." Piper said miserably.

"You're doing great." Jason smiled at her in reassurance.

**Jason roared. A bolt of lightning arced out of the clear blue sky. It ricocheted off his gladius and blasted Percy off his horse.**

"Wouldn't be the first time a child of Zeus blasted me with lightning." Percy laughed.

"Thalia?" Annabeth questioned curiously.

"It was during Capture-the-Flag." Percy sighed, "good times."

**Blackjack whinnied and fled into the wheat fields. Jason charged at Percy, who was now on his back, his clothes smoking from the lightning blast.**

**For a horrible moment, Piper couldn't find her voice. Gaea seemed to be whispering to her: You must choose one. Why not let Jason kill him?**

**"No!" she screamed. "Jason, stop!"**

**He froze, his sword six inches from Percy's face.**

Percy grimaced, that was a little closer than he preferred.

**Jason turned, the gold light in his eyes flickering uncertainly. "I cannot stop. One must die."**

**Something about that voice … it wasn't Gaea. It wasn't Jason. Whoever it was spoke haltingly, as if English was its second language.**

"One of Gaia's minions." Annabeth glared at the book.

**"Who are you?" Piper demanded.**

**Jason's mouth twisted in a gruesome smile. "We are the eidolons. We will live again."**

Annabeth slapped herself in the forehead, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"To be fair, nobody else thought of it either." Reyna shrugged.

Annabeth nodded.

**"Eidolons…?" Piper's mind raced. She'd studied all sorts of monsters at Camp Half-Blood, but that term wasn't familiar. "You're—you're some sort of ghost?"**

**"He must die." Jason turned his attention back to Percy, but Percy had recovered more than either of them realized. He swept out his leg and knocked Jason off his feet.**

**Jason's head hit the asphalt with a nauseating conk.**

"Ouch, two head injuries that close together." Jason shivered.

Percy rubbed the back of his neck, biting his lip so he didn't apologize.

**Percy rose.**

**"Stop it!" Piper screamed again, but there was no charmspeak in her voice. She was shouting in sheer desperation.**

**Percy raised Riptide over Jason's chest.**

Percy tensed and Annabeth, sensing his worry, put a hand on his shoulder and leaned into him.

"Anything that might happen isn't your fault, and it can be prevented." she whispered to him. He nodded but his body didn't relax.

**Panic closed up Piper's throat. She wanted to attack Percy with her dagger, but she knew that wouldn't help. Whatever was controlling him had all of Percy's skill. There was no way she could beat him in combat.**

Annabeth and Reyna nodded in agreement.

**She forced herself to focus. She poured all of her anger into her voice. "Eidolon, stop."**

**Percy froze.**

**"Face me," Piper ordered.**

**The son of the sea god turned. His eyes were gold instead of green, his face pale and cruel, not at all like Percy's.**

Annabeth shivered, that sounded way too similar to Luke/Kronos. Percy's face was pale and he was shaking.

"Hey, that isn't you. Okay? It's the eidolon. Not you." Annabeth told him. Percy heard her but the most he could to was nod to acknowledge that she was talking.

**"You have not chosen," he said. "So this one will die."**

**"You're a spirit from the Underworld," Piper guessed. "You're possessing Percy Jackson. Is that it?"**

**Percy sneered. "I will live again in this body. The Earth Mother has promised. I will go where I please, control whom I wish."**

"She promises a lot of things." Leo rolled his eyes.

**A wave of cold washed over Piper. "Leo … that's what happened to Leo. He was being controlled by an eidolon."**

The ones who already figured that out nodded as it was confirmed.

**The thing in Percy's form laughed without humor. "Too late you realize. You can trust no one."**

**Jason still wasn't moving. Piper had no help, no way to protect him.**

**Behind Percy, something rustled in the wheat. Piper saw the tip of a black wing, and Percy began to turn toward the sound.**

**"Ignore it!" she yelped. "Look at me."**

**Percy obeyed.**

"At least now you only have to control one of them." Annabeth pointed out.

**"You cannot stop me. I will kill Jason Grace."**

**Behind him, Blackjack emerged from the wheat field, moving with surprising stealth for such a large animal.**

"Don't underestimate him." Percy advised Piper, looking a little less worried now that his pegasus was there.

**"You won't kill him," Piper ordered. But she wasn't looking at Percy. She locked eyes with the pegasus, pouring all her power into her words and hoping Blackjack would understand. "You will knock him out."**

"You're brilliant." Annabeth grinned.

"Yes, you are." Jason agreed.

**The charmspeak washed over Percy. He shifted his weight indecisively. "I … will knock him out?"**

**"Oh, sorry." Piper smiled. "I wasn't talking to you."**

**Blackjack reared and brought his hoof down on Percy's head.**

**Percy crumpled to the pavement next to Jason.**

**"Oh, gods!" Piper ran to the boys. "Blackjack, you didn't kill him, did you?"**

Percy snorted, "Blackjack knows his own strength."

**The pegasus snorted. Piper couldn't speak Horse, but she thought he might have said: Please. I know my own strength.**

Everyone looked at Percy strangely, but he just smiled. "I know my Blackjack."

**Tempest was nowhere to be seen. The lightning steed had apparently returned to wherever storm spirits live on clear days.**

**Piper checked on Jason. He was breathing steadily, but two knocks on the skull in two days couldn't have been good for him.**

"I'll be fine." Jason shrugged.

**Then she examined Percy's head. She didn't see any blood, but a large knot was forming where the horse had kicked him. "We have to get them both back to the ship," she told Blackjack.**

**The pegasus bobbed his head in agreement. He knelt to the ground, so that Piper could drape Percy and Jason over his back. After a lot of hard work (unconscious boys were heavy), she got them reasonably secured, climbed onto Blackjack's back herself, and they took off for the ship.**

**The others were a little surprised when Piper came back on a pegasus with two unconscious demigods. While Frank and Hazel tended to Blackjack, Annabeth and Leo helped get Piper and the boys to the sickbay.**

**"At this rate, we're going to run out of ambrosia," Coach Hedge grumbled as he tended their wounds. "How come I never get invited on these violent trips?"**

"I will never understand him." Annabeth shook her head.

**Piper sat at Jason's side. She herself felt fine after a swig of nectar and some water, but she was still worried about the boys.**

**"Leo," Piper said, "are we ready to sail?"**

**"Yeah, but—"**

**"Set course for Atlanta. I'll explain later."**

**"But … okay." He hurried off.**

**Annabeth didn't argue with Piper either. She was too busy examining the horseshoe-shaped dent on the back of Percy's head.**

"Why must you always get into trouble?" Annabeth tried to hide a smile.

"Sorry, it just comes naturally to me." Percy grinned sheepishly.

**"What hit him?" she demanded.**

**"Blackjack," Piper said.**

**"What?"**

"That will definitely be a surprise to me." Annabeth nodded.

**Piper tried to explain while Coach Hedge applied some healing paste to the boys' heads. She'd never been impressed with Hedge's nursing abilities before, but he must have done something right. Either that, or the spirits that possessed the boys had also made them extra resilient. They both groaned and opened their eyes.**

**Within a few minutes, Jason and Percy were sitting up in their berths and able to talk in complete sentences. Both had fuzzy memories of what had happened. When Piper described their duel on the highway, Jason winced.**

"It's not exactly a happy story." Jason pointed out.

"They never are." Percy replied.

**"Knocked out twice in two days," he muttered. "Some demigod." He glanced sheepishly at Percy. "Sorry, man. I didn't mean to blast you."**

**Percy's shirt was peppered with burn holes. His hair was even more disheveled than normal. Despite that, he managed a weak laugh. "Not the first time. Your big sister got me good once at camp."**

"You already said that, Percy." Leo teased.

"Oh, shut up Leo." Percy shook his head good-naturedly.

**"Yeah, but … I could have killed you."**

**"Or I could have killed you," Percy said.**

**Jason shrugged. "If there'd been an ocean in Kansas, maybe."**

"He doesn't need an ocean, trust me. He can make a hurricane with no water around him." Annabeth warned Jason.

"A hurricane?" Jason asked incredulously. Annabeth nodded.

**"I don't need an ocean—"**

**"Boys," Annabeth interrupted, "I'm sure you both would've been wonderful at killing each other. But right now, you need some rest."**

Many of the people in the clearing laughed as Jason and Percy turned red.

**"Food first," Percy said. "Please? And we really need to talk. Bacchus said some things that don't—"**

**"Bacchus?" Annabeth raised her hand. "Okay, fine. We need to talk. Mess hall. Ten minutes. I'll tell the others. And please, Percy … change your clothes. You smell like you've been run over by an electric horse."**

"You don't find that attractive?" Percy asked pretending to be disappointed.

"Definitely not." Annabeth laughed.

**Leo gave the helm to Coach Hedge again, after making the satyr promise he would not steer them to the nearest military base "for fun."**

"He's insane." Leo shook his head.

**They gathered around the dining table, and Piper explained what had happened at TOPEKA 32—their conversation with Bacchus, the trap sprung by Gaea, the eidolons that had possessed the boys.**

**"Of course!" Hazel slapped the table, which startled Frank so much, he dropped his burrito. "That's what happened to Leo too."**

**"So it wasn't my fault." Leo exhaled. "I didn't start World War Three. I just got possessed by an evil spirit. That's a relief!"**

"We already knew it wasn't your fault." Annabeth said, "but now we have proof."

Reyna nodded. "I agree. Apollo himself told us this book is completely the truth. Nobody is calling a god a liar, correct?"

Everyone agreed, even Octavian reluctantly agreed.

**"But the Romans don't know that," Annabeth said. "And why would they take our word for it?"**

**"We could contact Reyna," Jason suggested. "She would believe us."**

"Thanks for your faith, but it's not only my decision." Reyna rolled her eyes as she glared at Octavian.

**Hearing the way Jason said her name, like it was a lifeline to his past, made Piper's heart sink.**

**Jason turned to her with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. "You could convince her, Pipes. I know you could."**

"How stupid could boys be?" somebody whispered to her friend as many people nodded in agreement much to the confusion of Jason.

**Piper felt like all the blood in her body was draining into her feet. Annabeth looked at her sympathetically, as if to say: Boys are so clueless. Even Hazel winced.**

**"I could try," she said halfheartedly. "But Octavian is the one we have to worry about. In my dagger blade, I saw him taking control of the Roman crowd. I'm not sure Reyna can stop him."**

"Romans are known for being easily swayed." Annabeth whispered to Percy making sure nobody heard but him.

**Jason's expression darkened. Piper didn't get any pleasure from bursting his bubble, but the other Romans—Hazel and Frank—nodded in agreement.**

**"She's right," Frank said. "This afternoon when we were scouting, we saw eagles again. They were a long way off, but closing fast. Octavian is on the warpath."**

**Hazel grimaced. "This is exactly the sort of opportunity Octavian has always wanted. He'll try to seize power. If Reyna objects, he'll say she's soft on the Greeks. As for those eagles … It's like they could smell us."**

"They can." Reyna said.

"That's just great." Percy said sarcastically.

**"They can," Jason said. "Roman eagles can hunt demigods by their magical scent even better than monsters can. This ship might conceal us somewhat, but not completely—not from them."**

**Leo drummed his fingers. "Great. I should have installed a smoke screen that makes the ship smell like a giant chicken nugget. Remind me to invent that, next time."**

**Hazel frowned. "What is a chicken nugget?"**

"You don't know what a chicken nugget is?" Leo asked in shock.

"No, should I?" Hazel asked slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I guess you wouldn't." Leo shrugged.

**"Oh, man …" Leo shook his head in amazement. "That's right. You've missed the last like, seventy years. Well, my apprentice, a chicken nugget—"**

**"Doesn't matter," Annabeth interrupted.**

"Very correct." Piper smiled.

**"The point is, we'll have a hard time explaining the truth to the Romans. Even if they believe us—"**

**"You're right." Jason leaned forward. "We should just keep going. Once we're over the Atlantic, we'll be safe—at least from the legion."**

"They wouldn't follow us?" Percy asked.

"We won't go over the Atlantic." Reyna answered.

**He sounded so depressed, Piper didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or resentful. "How can you be sure?" she asked. "Why wouldn't they follow us?"**

**He shook his head. "You heard Reyna talking about the ancient lands. They're much too dangerous. Roman demigods have been forbidden to go there for generations. Even Octavian couldn't get around that rule."**

"Stupid Octavian." Jason grumbled.

**Frank swallowed a bite of burrito like it had turned to cardboard in his mouth. "So, if we go there …"**

**"We'll be outlaws as well as traitors," Jason confirmed. "Any Roman demigod would have the right to kill us on sight. But I wouldn't worry about that. If we get across the Atlantic, they'll give up on chasing us. They'll assume that we'll die in the Mediterranean—the Mare Nostrum."**

**Percy pointed his pizza slice at Jason. "You, sir, are a ray of sunshine."**

Jason didn't argue, "I tell it like it is."

**Jason didn't argue. The other demigods stared at their plates, except for Percy, who continued to enjoy his pizza. Where he put all that food, Piper didn't know. The guy could eat like a satyr.**

"Thanks." Percy grinned.

"What?" Piper asked.

"He takes that as a compiment." Annabeth rolled her eyes as a smile appeared on her face. "Ignore him."

**"So let's plan ahead," Percy suggested, "and make sure we don't die. Mr. D—Bacchus— Ugh, do I have to call him Mr. B now? Anyway, he mentioned the twins in Ella's prophecy. Two giants. Otis and, uh, something that started with an F?"**

**"Ephialtes," Jason said.**

"That starts with an E." somebody pointed out.

"Close enough." Percy shrugged.

**"Twin giants, like Piper saw in her blade …" Annabeth ran her finger along the rim of her cup. "I remember a story about twin giants. They tried to reach Mount Olympus by piling up a bunch of mountains."**

"So they're pretty big." Frank groaned. "Perfect."

**Frank nearly choked. "Well, that's great. Giants who can use mountains like building blocks. And you say Bacchus killed these guys with a pinecone on a stick?"**

**"Something like that," Percy said. "I don't think we should count on his help this time. He wanted a tribute, and he made it pretty clear it would be a tribute we couldn't handle."**

"You just don't want to help him." Annabeth sighed in exasperation.

"Maybe." Percy tried to hide his smile.

**Silence fell around the table. Piper could hear Coach Hedge above deck singing "Blow the Man Down," except he didn't know the lyrics, so he mostly sang, "Blah-blah-hum-de-dum-dum."**

"I don't know the lyrics either." Leo said sadly.

**Piper couldn't shake the feeling that Bacchus was meant to help them. The giant twins were in Rome. They were keeping something the demigods needed—something in that bronze jar. Whatever it was, she got the feeling it held the answer to sealing the Doors of Death—the key to endless death. She also felt sure they could never defeat the giants without Bacchus's help. And if they couldn't do that in five days, Rome would be destroyed, and Hazel's brother, Nico, would die.**

**On the other hand, if the vision of Bacchus offering her a silver goblet was false, maybe the other visions didn't have to come true either—especially the one of her, Percy, and Jason drowning. Maybe that was just symbolic.**

Percy winced, he wasn't sure that was the case.

**The blood of a female demigod, Gaea had said, and the blood of a male. Piper, my dear, choose which hero will die with you.**

**"She wants two of us," Piper murmured.**

Most of the people in the clearing looked like they were glad they weren't the ones on the quest.

**Everyone turned to look at her.**

**Piper hated being the center of attention. Maybe that was strange for a child of Aphrodite, but she'd watched her dad, the movie star, deal with fame for years. She remembered when Aphrodite had claimed her at the bonfire in front of the entire camp, zapping her with a magic beauty-queen makeover. That had been the most embarrassing moment of her life. Even here, with only six other demigods, Piper felt exposed.**

Jason blushed when he remembered the night when Piper was claimed. She might have been beautiful, but he definitely preferred the everyday Piper.

**They're my friends, she told herself. It's okay.**

**But she had a strange feeling … as if more than six sets of eyes were watching her.**

"The eidolons." Annabeth murmured.

**"Today on the highway," she said, "Gaea told me that she needed the blood of only two demigods—one female, one male. She—she asked me to choose which boy would die."**

**Jason squeezed her hand. "But neither of us died. You saved us."**

"Congratulations." Percy smiled.

**"I know. It's just … Why would she want that?"**

**Leo whistled softly. "Guys, remember at the Wolf House? Our favorite ice princess, Khione? She talked about spilling Jason's blood, how it would taint the place for generations. Maybe demigod blood has some kind of power."**

**"Oh …" Percy set down his third pizza slice. He leaned back and stared at nothing, as if the horse kick to his head had just now registered.**

"That's not it." Annabeth shook her head.

**"Percy?" Annabeth gripped his arm.**

**"Oh, bad," he muttered. "Bad. Bad." He looked across the table at Frank and Hazel. "You guys remember Polybotes?"**

**"The giant who invaded Camp Jupiter," Hazel said. "The anti-Poseidon you whacked in the head with a Terminus statue. Yes, I think I remember."**

"You didn't have to say it like _that._" Frank laughed.

**"I had a dream," Percy said, "when we were flying to Alaska. Polybotes was talking to the gorgons, and he said—he said he wanted me taken prisoner, not killed. He said: 'I want that one chained at my feet, so I can kill him when the time is ripe. His blood shall water the stones of Mount Olympus and wake Earth Mother!'"**

**"So it's not just me that she wants to sacrifice," Percy grimaced, and looked uncomfortably at Annabeth, "they need a girl demigod, too."**

"I have a feeling Gaia prefers two demigods in particular." Annabeth grimaced as she leaned more into Percy.

**Piper wondered if the room's temperature controls were broken, because suddenly she couldn't stop shaking. It was the same way she'd felt on the highway outside Topeka. "You think the giants would use our blood … the blood of two of us—"**

**"I don't know," Percy said. "But until we figure it out, I suggest we all try to avoid getting captured."**

"I'm pretty sure I would have done that anyway." Leo pointed out.

**Jason grunted. "That I agree with."**

**"But how do we figure it out?" Hazel asked. "The Mark of Athena, the twins, Ella's prophecy … how does it all fit together?"**

**Annabeth pressed her hands against the edge of the table. "Piper, you told Leo to set our course for Atlanta."**

"Like Bacchus said." Piper nodded.

**"Right," Piper said. "Bacchus told us we should seek out … what was his name?"**

**"Phorcys," Percy said.**

Annabeth looked surprised, "You remembered?"

"You don't need to act so surprised." Percy grumbled.

**Annabeth looked surprised, like she wasn't used to her boyfriend having the answers.**

"Ugh, again?" Percy groaned.

**"You know him?"**

**Percy shrugged. "I didn't recognize the name at first. Then Bacchus mentioned salt water, and it rang a bell. Phorcys is an old sea god from before my dad's time. Never met him, but supposedly he's a son of Gaea. I still don't understand what a sea god would be doing in Atlanta."**

**Leo snorted. "What's a wine god doing in Kansas? Gods are weird.**

"Very true." Percy laughed.

**Anyway, we should reach Atlanta by noon tomorrow, unless something else goes wrong."**

"Don't jinx it." Annabeth warned Leo.

**"Don't even say that," Annabeth muttered. "It's getting late. We should all get some sleep."**

**"Wait," Piper said.**

**Once more, everyone looked at her.**

**She was rapidly losing her courage, wondering if her instincts were wrong, but she forced herself to speak.**

**"There's one last thing," she said. "The eidolons—the possessing spirits. They're still here, in this room."**

Percy was about to ask who wanted to read next when Apollo and Hermes appeared right next to him and Annabeth. "Did you miss us?"

**A/N: Question of the Chapter: What were the coordinates of the Golden Fleece? **

**P.S. Lana del Rey is probably the most perfect person I've ever seen.**


	15. Apollo and Hermes

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to OmegaBanda14. They guessed the answer correctly, and as a reward, I reviewed one of their stories. So, I haven't been getting e-mail alerts when stories I follow are updated and I have no idea why. I get everything else, just not when stories I follow are updated. Does anyone know why? Is it happening to anyone else? It's been happening for about a month.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the bold or any characters.**

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked Apollo and Hermes suspiciously. There was no way they were here for no reason. There was something important going on.

"How do you know we aren't just visiting for fun?" Apollo asked.

"You aren't." Percy shook his head, thinking the same thing as his girlfriend.

"Fine, you're right." Apollo admitted.

"There's been a little change of plans." Hermes continued.

Percy narrowed his eyes, "What's going on?"

"The Fates have informed us that if the seven of the prophecy don't leave now, they won't make it in time to save Nico." Apollo said quickly.

Hazel stood up immedietely, "We have to leave now."

Annabeth nodded, "Let's go."

Apollo burst out, "Hold on! You need to keep reading the book, no matter what!"

Percy looked like he didn't understand why reading was so important, but he didn't argue, "We will."

"Then we are done here." Hermes smiled. "Maybe we will see you later."

Apollo and Hermes disappeared in a flash of light, leaving everyone else still in a state of shock.

"C'mon." Percy said as he stood up and started jogging to the ship, dragging Annabeth with him. Piper grabbed the book and followed them.

Once they were all back on the ship and Percy had a tour, they sat down around the table Leo offered to read.

**A/N: Yes, extremely short. I know. The next chapter will be posted very soon. Please don't mention the length of the chapter, it was just transitional. Question of the Chapter: What sign did Percy tell Sally he would give her to let her know he was save during the Battle of Manhatten?**


	16. Piper XII

**A/N: I know a lot of you aren't happy about me taking them out of New Rome, but I felt like they didn't have much to say. It was mostly the seven talking and sometimes I forgot about the other characters. I think this is easier for me. This chapter is dedicated to Doclover for guessing the answer right. As a reward I would have reviewed one of their stories, but they don't have any. And I know you guys have probably heard that Cory Monteith died, but I just wanted to say I hope he is happier now. He might have not made all the right decisions, but addiction is a hard thing to escape. Rest in peace.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the bold or any of the characters.**

**"Piper XII," **Leo read.

**Piper couldn't explain how she knew.**

"Maybe we should take care of the eidoleons before we do anything important." Annabeth suggested.

"Let's read the chapter first and then we could see how we take care of it in the book." Percy sighed.

**Stories of phantoms and tortured souls had always freaked her out. Her dad used to joke about Grandpa Tom's Cherokee legends from back on the rez, but even at home in their big Malibu mansion, looking out over the Pacific, whenever her dad recounted the ghost stories for her, she could never get them out of her head.**

**Cherokee spirits were always restless. They often lost their way to the Land of the Dead, or stayed behind with the living out of sheer stubbornness. Sometimes they didn't even realize they were dead.**

"That's actually really sad and depressing." Jason frowned.

**The more Piper learned about being a demigod, the more convinced she was that Cherokee legends and Greek myths weren't so different. These eidolons acted a lot like the spirits in her dad's stories.**

**Piper had a gut sense they were still present, simply because no one had told them to go away.**

"I don't think it's that easy." Leo pointed out. "They don't just go away when you tell them to."

"I don't know." Piper smirked. "I can be very persuasive."

**When she was done explaining, the others looked at her uncomfortably. Up on deck, Hedge sang something that sounded like "In the Navy" while Blackjack stomped his hooves, whinnying in protest.**

"Where is Coach Hedge?" Percy asked.

"Up on deck most likely." Annabeth answered.

"Should we include him in reading?" Percy wondered.

Annabeth looked at him like he was crazy, "Are you serious? He would try to destroy everything!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Percy conceded.

**Finally Hazel exhaled. "Piper is right."**

**"How can you be sure?" Annabeth asked.**

**"I've met eidolons," Hazel said. "In the Underworld, when I was … you know."**

"Dead." Leo pointed out helpfully.

Annabeth glared at him, but he didn't seem to notice.

**Piper had forgotten that Hazel was a second-timer. In her own way, Hazel too was a ghost reborn.**

"I didn't mean it like that." Piper said quickly after seeing Hazel wince.

"That's ok." Hazel smiled.

**"So …" Frank rubbed his hand across his buzz-cut hair as if some ghosts might have invaded his scalp. "You think these things are lurking on the ship, or—"**

**"Possibly lurking inside some of us," Piper said. "We don't know."**

**"Can they lurk inside of us … without us even noticing?" Percy asked nervously, but he didn't get answer.**

"None of us know." Annabeth shrugged.

**Jason clenched his fist. "If that's true—"**

**"We have to take steps," Piper said. "I think I can do this."**

**"Do what?" Percy asked.**

**"Just listen, okay?" Piper took a deep breath. "Everybody listen."**

Annabeth slowly smiled as she realized what Piper was going to try, "I think this might actually work."

"I was thinking the same thing." Piper grinned.

**Piper met their eyes, one person at a time.**

**"Eidolons," she said, using her charmspeak, "raise your hands."**

**There was tense silence.**

"That's your plan?" Leo laughed. "You think that will work?"

Piper shrugged.

**Leo laughed nervously. "Did you really think that was going to—?"**

**His voice died. His face went slack. He raised his hand.**

**Jason and Percy did the same.**

Leo, Jason, and Percy all looked panicked at each other. "What do we do?"

"After this chapter we will get rid of them." Piper promised as she glanced at Jason worriedly.

Percy winced as Annabeth grabbed his hand, "You shouldn't be touching me. I'm not only me right now!"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him, "Right now you are completely you. They only take control sometimes."

"But I'm tainted," Percy frowned.

Annabeth laughed, "I think all of us are tainted, Percy. Don't feel too special."

Percy laughed and wrapped his arm around Annabeth's waist. Annabeth secretly smiled, knowing she made Percy feel better.

**Their eyes had turned glassy and gold. Hazel caught her breath. Next to Leo, Frank scrambled out of his chair and put his back against the wall.**

Frank frowned as some people laughed, "Can you blame me?"

Everyone immedietely sobered up.

**"Oh, gods." Annabeth looked at Piper imploringly. "Can you cure them?"**

**Piper wanted to whimper and hide under the table, but she had to help Jason. She couldn't believe she'd held hands with … No, she refused to think about it.**

**She focused on Leo because he was the least intimidating.**

"Wow geez, Piper. So that's how you really feel." Leo teased.

"Shut up, Leo." Piper rolled her eyes and shoved him in the arm.

**"Are there more of you on this ship?" she asked.**

**"No," Leo said in a hollow voice. "The Earth Mother sent three. The strongest, the best. We will live again."**

**"Not here, you won't," Piper growled. "All three of you, listen carefully."**

**Jason and Percy turned toward her. Those gold eyes were unnerving, but seeing all three boys like that fueled Piper's anger.**

"You are braver than people give you credit for." Jason said thoughtfully.

Piper forced herself to smile.

**"You will leave those bodies," she commanded.**

**"No," Percy said.**

Leo started laughing, "Percy, always the stubborn one."

"I'm not always stubborn." Percy frowned.

"Yes you are." Annabeth shook her head, "Admit it."

"I guess I can be sometimes." Percy admitted.

"Always." Annabeth corrected.

"It's not like you're one to talk." Percy mumbled.

"What was that?" Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

"Nothing." Percy smiled as sweetly as he possibly could.

"That's what I thought."

**Leo let out a soft hiss. "We must live."**

**Frank fumbled for his bow. "Mars Almighty, that's creepy! Get out of here, spirits! Leave our friends alone!"**

"Frank, I really hate to break this to you, but you aren't the one with charmsspeak. Piper is." Leo said solemnly.

Frank rolled his eyes, "Thanks for letting me know."

**Leo turned toward him. "You cannot command us, child of war. Your own life is fragile. Your soul could burn at any moment."**

"How do they know about that?" Frank asked panicky.

Annabeth shook her head, "We have no idea what they know."

**Piper wasn't sure what that meant, but Frank staggered like he'd been punched in the gut. He drew an arrow, his hands shaking. "I—I've faced down worse things than you. If you want a fight—"**

**"Frank, don't." Hazel rose.**

**Next to her, Jason drew his sword.**

**"Stop!" Piper ordered, but her voice quavered. She was rapidly losing faith in her plan. She'd made the eidolons appear, but what now? If she couldn't persuade them to leave, any bloodshed would be her fault. In the back of her mind, she could almost hear Gaea laughing.**

"Just be confident." Annabeth said calmly.

**"Listen to Piper." Hazel pointed at Jason's sword. The gold blade seemed to grow heavy in his hand. It clunked to the table and Jason sank back into his chair.**

**Percy growled in a very un-Percy-like way. "Daughter of Pluto, you may control gems and metals. You do not control the dead."**

"That's Nico's job." Percy joked.

**Annabeth reached toward him as if to restrain him, but Hazel waved her off.**

**"Listen, eidolons," Hazel said sternly, "you do not belong here. I may not command you, but Piper does. Obey her."**

**She turned toward Piper, her expression clear: Try again. You can do this.**

**Piper mustered all her courage. She looked straight at Jason—straight into the eyes of the thing that was controlling him. "You will leave those bodies," Piper repeated, even more forcefully.**

"This is going to work." Hazel said confidently.

**Jason's face tightened. His forehead beaded with sweat. "We—we will leave these bodies."**

"You are absolutely genius." Jason smiled at his girlfriend.

**"You will vow on the River Styx never to return to this ship," Piper continued, "and never to possess any member of this crew."**

**Leo and Percy both hissed in protest.**

**"You will promise on the River Styx," Piper insisted.**

**A moment of tension—she could feel their wills fighting against hers. Then all three eidolons spoke in unison: "We promise on the River Styx."**

"This is really creepy." Percy shivered.

"Tell me about it." Leo rolled his eyes.

**"You are dead," Piper said.**

**"We are dead," they agreed.**

**"Now, leave."**

**All three boys slumped forward. Percy fell face-first into his pizza.**

"Of course. That's just my luck." Percy said sarcastically.

"Would you really want it any other way?" Annabeth questioned.

"I wouldn't change anything in my life." Percy said seriously.

"Me neither." Annabeth smiled at him.

**"Percy!" Annabeth grabbed him.**

**Piper and Hazel caught Jason's arms as he slipped out of his chair.**

**Leo wasn't so lucky. He fell toward Frank, who made no attempt to intercept him. Leo hit the floor.**

"Thanks, man." Leo muttered.

**"Ow!" he groaned.**

**"Are you all right?" Hazel asked.**

**Leo pulled himself up. He had a piece of spaghetti in the shape of a 3 stuck to his forehead. "Did it work?"**

**"It worked," Piper said, feeling pretty sure she was right. "I don't think they'll be back."**

"Unless they find a loophole." Annabeth whispered to herself.

**Jason blinked. "Does that mean I can stop getting head injuries now?"**

**Piper laughed, exhaling all her nervousness. "Come on, Lightning Boy. Let's get you some fresh air."**

**Piper and Jason walked back and forth along the deck. Jason was still wobbly, so Piper encouraged him to wrap his arm around her for support.**

"Is that the only reason you wanted me to wrap my arm around you?" Jason teased Piper.

"You're such a jerk." Piper blushed as she lightly punched him on the arm.

**Leo stood at the helm, conferring with Festus through the intercom; he knew from experience to give Jason and Piper some space. Since the satellite TV was up again, Coach Hedge was in his cabin happily catching up on his mixed martial arts cage matches. Percy's pegasus Blackjack had flown off somewhere. The other demigods were settling in for the night.**

**The Argo II raced east, cruising several hundred feet above the ground. Below them small towns passed by like lit-up islands in a dark sea of prairie.**

"Things look so beautiful from the sky." Jason smiled.

"I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one." Percy winced.

**Piper remembered last winter, flying Festus the dragon over the city of Quebec. She had never seen anything so beautiful, or felt so happy to have Jason's arms around her—but this was even better.**

**The night was warm. The ship sailed along more smoothly than a dragon. Best of all, they were flying away from Camp Jupiter as fast as they possibly could. No matter how dangerous the ancient lands were, Piper couldn't wait to get there. She hoped Jason was right that the Romans wouldn't follow them across the Atlantic.**

"I think he is. They'll assume we died." Annabeth pointed out.

**Jason stopped amidships and leaned against the rail. The moonlight turned his blond hair silver.**

**"Thanks, Pipes," he said. "You saved me again."**

"This is becoming a habit." Piper noticed.

"I'm fine with that." Jason smiled. "As long as you let me save you sometimes too."

**He put his arm around her waist. She thought about the day they'd fallen into the Grand Canyon—the first time she'd learned that Jason could control the air. He'd held her so tightly, she could feel his heartbeat. Then they'd stopped falling and floated in midair. Best. Boyfriend. Ever.**

**She wanted to kiss him now, but something held her back.**

**"I don't know if Percy will trust me anymore," she said. "Not after I let his horse knock him out."**

Percy shrugged her off, "It happens."

**Jason laughed. "Don't worry about that. Percy's a nice guy, but I get the feeling he needs a knock on the head every once in a while."**

"That's very true." Annabeth agreed.

"I'm glad I get so much support from my girlfriend." Percy rolled his eyes.

"You know I love you." Annabeth smiled.

"Yeah I know. I love you too." Percy pecked her on the lips.

**"You could have killed him."**

**Jason's smile faded. "That wasn't me."**

**"But I almost let you," Piper said. "When Gaea said I had to choose, I hesitated and …"**

"That's normal." Percy said seeing Piper's guilty face. "Anyone would want to save their boyfriend if they had to make that choice." Piper nodded and tried to feel less guilty.

**She blinked, cursing herself for crying.**

**"Don't be so hard on yourself," Jason said. "You saved us both."**

**"But if two of our crew really have to die, a boy and a girl—"**

Percy winced for some reason. He didn't know why, but he had a really bad feeling about this.

**"I don't accept that. We're going to stop Gaea. All seven of us are going to come back alive. I promise you."**

**Piper wished that he hadn't promised. The word only reminded her of the Prophecy of Seven: an oath to keep with a final breath.**

"That doesn't sound like the promise from the prophecy." Annabeth said thoughtfully.

"The word promise just scares me now." Piper shrugged.

**Please, she thought, wondering if her mom, the goddess of love, could hear her. Don't let it be Jason's final breath. If love means anything, don't take him away.**

Jason smiled weakly and wrapped his arm around Piper.

**As soon as she had made the wish, she felt guilty. How could she stand to see Annabeth in that kind of pain if Percy died? How could she live with herself if any of the seven demigods died? Already, each of them had endured so much. Even the two new Roman kids, Hazel and Frank, whom Piper barely knew, felt like kin. At Camp Jupiter, Percy had recounted their trip to Alaska, which sounded as harrowing as anything Piper had experienced. And from the way Hazel and Frank tried to help during the exorcism, she could tell they were brave, good people.**

Everyone smiled at Piper thankfully.

**"The legend that Annabeth mentioned," she said, "about the Mark of Athena … why didn't you want to talk about it?"**

**She was afraid Jason might shut her out, but he just lowered his head like he'd been expecting the question. "Pipes, I don't know what's true and what's not. That legend … it could be really dangerous."**

**"For who?"**

"Everyone." Jason said carefully.

**"All of us," he said grimly. "The story goes that the Romans stole something important from the Greeks, back in ancient times, when the Romans conquered the Greeks' cities."**

**Piper waited, but Jason seemed lost in thought.**

**"What did they steal?" she asked.**

"Something important." Annabeth said thoughtfully.

**"I don't know," he said. "I'm not sure anyone in the legion has ever known. But according to the story, this thing was taken away to Rome and hidden there. The children of Athena, Greek demigods, have hated us ever since. They've always stirred up their brethren against the Romans. Like I said, I don't know how much of that is true—"**

"The Mark of Athena." Annabeth whispered making sure nobody heard.

**"But why not just tell Annabeth?" Piper asked. "She's not going to suddenly hate you."**

**He seemed to have trouble focusing on her. "I hope not. But the legend says that the children of Athena have been searching for this thing for millennia. Every generation, a few are chosen by the goddess to find it. Apparently, they're led to Rome by some sign … the Mark of Athena."**

**"If Annabeth is one of those searchers … we should help her."**

"Thank you for supporting me, but I think it's a one person job." Annabeth sighed. Percy frowned at that. He knew he was going to want to help her.

**Jason hesitated. "Maybe. When we get closer to Rome, I'll tell her what little I know. Honest. But the story, at least the way I heard it—it claims that if the Greeks ever found what was stolen, they'd never forgive us. They'd destroy the legion and Rome, once and for all. After what Nemesis told Leo, about Rome's being destroyed five days from now ….**

"I don't care what your ancestors did. You didn't do anything." Annabeth told Jason.

"Thanks." Jason smiled weakly.

**Piper studied Jason's face. He was, without a doubt, the bravest person she'd ever known, but she realized he was afraid. This legend—the idea that it might tear apart their group and level a city—absolutely terrified him.**

"That would terrify anyone." Percy pointed out.

**Piper wondered what could have been stolen from the Greeks that would be so important. She couldn't imagine anything that would make Annabeth suddenly turn vengeful.**

**Then again, Piper couldn't imagine choosing one demigod's life over another, and today on that deserted road, just for a moment, Gaea had almost tempted her .…**

"Really, don't feel bad about that." Percy told Piper.

"I'll try." Piper shrugged helplessly.

**"I'm sorry, by the way," Jason said.**

**Piper wiped the last tear from her face. "Sorry for what? It was the eidolon who attacked—"**

**"Not about that." The little scar on Jason's upper lip seemed to glow white in the moonlight. She'd always loved that scar. The imperfection made his face much more interesting.**

Piper looked at Jason curiously.

**"I was stupid to ask you to contact Reyna," he said. "I wasn't thinking."**

"Oh." Piper blushed.

**"Oh." Piper looked up at the clouds and wondered if her mother, Aphrodite, was somehow influencing him. His apology seemed too good to be true.**

**But don't stop, she thought. "Really, it's okay."**

**"It's just … I never felt that way toward Reyna," Jason said, "so I didn't think about its making you uncomfortable. You've got nothing to worry about, Pipes."**

"Sometimes I think this book is too private to read." Piper muttered.

**"I wanted to hate her," Piper admitted. "I was so afraid you'd go back to Camp Jupiter."**

"I would never leave you!" Jason said surprised.

**Jason looked surprised. "That would never happen. Not unless you came with me. I promise."**

**Piper held his hand. She managed a smile, but she was thinking: Another promise. An oath to keep with a final breath.**

"Stop worrying about promises, okay?" Jason asked. Piper nodded.

**She tried to put those thoughts out of her mind. She knew she should just enjoy this quiet moment with Jason. But as she looked over the side of the ship, she couldn't help remembering how much the prairie at night looked like dark water—like the drowning room she'd seen in the blade of her knife.**

"We need to get rid of the eidoleons." Annabeth said after the chapter was finished, "Now."

**A/N: Question of the Chapter: What were Percy and Thalia wearing when he dreamed about her in The Lightning Thief?**


End file.
